A fighter needs to learn how to make hard decisions, whether it be personal, professional or anything for that matter. Those who make decisions are the ones that lead, even if at times those decisions are hard.

After years of decision-making (right and wrong), the decisions have only gotten harder and harder with bigger potential rewards and/or consequences. By default, I was becoming inclined to debate and reason for days/weeks and even months before I made a hard decision.

Never Do This When Making A Decision

What’s worse is that I was starting to get “wishy washy” - meaning I would make a decision and then change it and then make another one and change it again…

I still am a bit “wishy washy,” especially as of lately - my head has been in a bit of a fog with everything going on.

It was because of this that I recently made a decision about how I would make decisions

Go with my gut feeling…

Rule #1 of Making Hard Decisions

Before you let your brain become overwhelmed with “logical reasoning” and all the “what ifs” - take a step back, step OUT of your own head and just think “what is my gut saying?”

Many times (I’d say 90% of the time), THAT is the right decision to go with. Yes, some times it isn’t, but none of us will ever make the right decision 100% of the time, not possible.

Your gut is actually very observant, start to trust it more.

How Do You Know What Your Gut Thinks?

First of all, “your gut” is more like “what you feel…” - it’s just that FEELING you get, sometimes you have no way of explaining it, but you know it’s there.

The best way to know what your gut is thinking is to do this exercise:

Step back and DE-clog your mind…count down from 10 while taking a few deep breaths.

Now, simply ASK yourself the question and look for the FIRST feeling you get - something inside you WILL respond immediately. What you want is that IMMEDIATE response, not the one that comes right after it or 5 seconds into it (that’s when the “decision debate” starts and that is precisely what we’re trying to get away from).

Let’s see an example:

“Should I confront Lisa about the comments she made to Mark about me?” <– just pulled one out of thin air…

Now, you will INSTANTLY get a feeling in your head/gut - somewhere, anywhere. It’ll either say YES or it’ll say NO. THAT initial feeling is your answer/decision.

RIGHT after that initial feeling you’ll instantly also hear the “But…and what if…” For now, don’t pay attention to them. The first thing you need to do is recognize and listen to your gut.

Once you know what your gut says…

After Your Gut, Give Your Brain ONE Counter-Argument…

What I do after my gut declares the decision is give my brain a chance to counter-argue (like in court) just once. So, I let myself get overtaken by ALL the “what ifs.” Here’s the next question I ask myself…

“Are these risks so big that they overshadow the benefit?”

If your answer is yes, then you’ve officially made a decision and now have reason to counter your gut.

Here’s the thing though, I’ve done this many times and hardly ever has my brain been able to overrule my gut.

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