Do you struggle with making decisions? Many people do, and they rely on all kinds of tricks to come to what they hope will be the right choice. Some people talk to everyone they know to get their advice. Then they make lists of the pros and cons of each choice. They sleep on it. They stay up all night, unable to sleep. They change their minds a dozen times.
After all of that, they may choose not to make a decision at all—which effectively locks them into the status quo. Not making a decision is a decision, and it may well be the wrong one.
When you are faced with an important decision, the best choice is often to follow your heart. But what if you aren’t sure what your heart wants? Here is a simple, fast and easy way to choose:
Call heads or tails, then flip a coin. What?!? Trust a decision that could affect the rest of your life to the flip of a coin? Am I out of my mind? Not really. Here is the trick:
As you toss the coin into the air, you will find yourself hoping for one outcome over the other. For example, if you are trying to decide whether or not to move to a new city, you say that heads you will move, tails you won’t. When you flip the coin, are you hoping it comes up heads? That means that you really want to make the move.
You don’t even have to look at the coin to see whether heads or tails came up—you already have your answer.
Although we like to think that we always make rational decisions, most of the time we make decisions emotionally, then choose facts to back up the decisions we made. Save yourself some agonizing by quickly determining what you really want. Then you can start gathering facts to justify your choice! ;o)
Whenever you’re called on to make up your mind,
and you’re hampered by not having any,
the best way to solve the dilemma, you’ll find,
is simply by spinning a penny.
No — not so that chance shall decide the affair
while you’re passively standing there moping;
but the moment the penny is up in the air,
you suddenly know what you’re hoping.
—Piet Hein
