7 Mind Hacks to Start Making Better Decisions Faster
As leaders in the industry, there are times when we think we don’t make the right decisions. Sometimes, we start procrastinating and over-thinking the simplest of things and end up not doing anything about it, which hurts your business and the people to whom you provide your services.
We have to face many external causes; the challenges, problems, the market itself, and even competition. The question is, though, does it even matter?
Habitually we think that because we’re leaders, we have to be the best and only that; However, we have to understand that it’s not all about being the best. Today, I’ll be talking about seven mind hacks that you can use to start making better decisions as a leader starting today.
Accept that you can’t be the best.
There’s always going to be someone better than you. The moment we accept that fact, we start improving and losing all the doubt and procrastination behind our decisions.
Even before starting projects or businesses, we stop and wonder if we’re good enough to start. We look for reasons to fail rather than succeed. The problem is if we’re already thinking about failing from the start, guess what? That’s the result you will see. Or, you’ll work hard to get to the results you want to have.
While striving to be the best is a good goal, comparing yourself with others more often than not lead to indecision, overthinking, and ultimately, you lose your focus on the message you want to send your target audience.
And that’s another critical point here. You’re catering to YOUR audience, not the competition.
You must start accepting that you can’t be the best because it’s just not possible. We’re all different, and that’s a good thing. That’s what separates us from the other company with the same business model as you.
If you decide to give your customers and clients the value they deserve to get, you’ll always get more, and that’s the actual goal here.
If you remove the competition in your mind, you’ll find that you can create the campaigns you want to do, the promotions you think will work best, and this saves you valuable time, and, as a bonus; you’re less stressed too.
Stop overthinking and self-sabotaging your success.
Another thing that we tend to do is to overthink things, which leads us to sabotage our businesses without us knowing.
I’ve had experiences where I doubted my business model and had to change it repeatedly. Ultimately it confused my clients about my core offer. Because of this unclarity and many changes, some clients left with a harmful effect on my business.
Had I stuck to my core interest, passion and genius and only elaborated on the delivery; it wouldn’t have happened. It’s not only me; it happens to many entrepreneurs and small business owners because we keep looking at others and compare ourselves to them.
As a visionary, passionate, entrepreneurial business owner, you must understand that you are different from everyone else.
It’s usually the fear of missing out or the fear of better options that drives us to start overthinking things in our business. Just because someone else is doing a 50% OFF sale doesn’t mean you should do that too. Their business model might be different, or it might not work well with your kind of service or products.
Start meditating every week.
One way to condition yourself to overcome these struggles is to meditate. Schedule a few minutes every day, or week if you have a problem committing to yourself, to clear your mind.
Think of your goals, your message, and the people who have trusted you and your company.
Yes, some other companies are doing better than you, but does that really matter if you think about it? Does their success directly influence yours?
When you introduce a new habit, soon you can integrate it into your day. A 15-minute meditation break during work always gives you better insights and ideas, which lead to faster decision making and a clear goal in mind.
Strengthen your confidence by learning more.
Never stop learning. Confidently committing to learning is the key to unlock excellent decision making. If there’s something you doubt or don’t know about, Google it or find someone who knows the subject. You can even look for a course about it.
As entrepreneurs, it’s our responsibility to stay up to date with news in our industry. The moment we give up on learning is the moment you start becoming stagnant in your business. The same goes for your life. Never stop learning!
Stagnation is one big reason why there are business professionals who can’t decide right away. They’re not confident with what they know, and at the back of their minds, they think their idea might not work.
When ideas don’t work, it’s not because of the idea itself but rather, how you implemented it. There are no bad ideas, only poorly executed ones. If this is the case, and you keep on learning, you can find ways to use new thoughts in the right way that will help prosper your business.
Ask what your people want specifically.
We can’t make quick, sound business decisions because we don’t know a lot about our target audience.
Habits and interests change over time, and sometimes, instantly, what has worked before might not work anymore, and it stays in our minds when making decisions.
One easy way to fix this problem is to ask your audience what they want.
You can do this through surveys on your website, maybe a poll, or just asking them straight-forward. Many refrains from using this tactic due to fear of negative feedback; however, you get to know your audience more from this. You also get a chance to adjust whatever needs to be realigned.
Learning more about your audience means you get to decide how you want to move your business forward without doubting your choices.
Minimise procrastination by taking action.
I’m talking about doing things, not just keeping things in your mind. We procrastinate out of fear for our decisions, but the more we do this, the more we don’t realise what’s going on in our business.
We could always think of a thousand problems that could happen in our business. And we can have millions of great ideas as well. However, if we keep thinking of the possibilities rather than act, nothing happens.
Yes, there are times when you have to weigh your decisions, but if you never stop learning, you know your audience, and you have a clear mind, you can easily create a best-case scenario.
The truth is, you only have to be ready at 80%. You don’t need to know 100% to get started. 80% is enough. So, take action! There’s no perfect solution or perfect business plan. The only way to move forward is to do things. If it fails, then raise up, shower and start again.
When you fail, you don’t start from scratch. You start from experience.
Fill yourself with positivity.
Indecision or the lack of confidence to make quick business decisions happen when we are full of negativity, that is not even our own. It can be our own negative beliefs of what others think about us, or others leaving negative, unsupportive, and maybe uninvited, comments on our endeavour. It can come from external sources that promote doubting ourselves and our expertise.
The way to fix this is to let all that doubt and lack of confidence go.
If you have a toxic group of friends that keep sharing their problems and negative experiences on social media, hide those posts. If you encounter problematic situations at home, turn those challenges into opportunities and tasks you can act on.
What’s in your control? Very little, so focus on that!
Remember it’s your choice to take in the negativity around you. You can choose not to be affected and instead decide to find a way to pick the brighter side of things.
