Making Win-Win Decisions: A Step-by-Step Process
How to Make Win-Win Decisions
Teachability: Are You Ready to Learn?
Are you teachable?
- Willingness to learn and do things differently.
- Willingness to accept change and do things differently.
- What are you willing to give up?
- What are you willing to invest in time and money?
Be Aware: Understanding Your Inner Self
- Of your belief systems.
- Of your predominant mental attitude.
- Of your focus.
- Of your thoughts that lead to action.
- That your outer life is the effect and your inner life the cause.
Before Making a Decision: A Step-by-Step Approach
1. Embrace a Win-Win Mindset
Be aware: Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.
Have a conscious conversation with yourself that you are embarking on a win-win journey regardless of the outcome of the decision you make. If everything works out as expected, celebrate your victory and make notes of the actions taken. On the other hand, if your decision did not produce the desired result, seize the opportunity to learn. This is the perfect time to cultivate a spirit of humility by recognizing adversity as the master teacher and embrace what seems like a failure, loss, or a mistake to learn and grow. Recognize whatever feelings your perceived mistake evokes in you and then move to a place of reflection, evaluation, and refocus.
Ask yourself: How can this experience help me in the future?
2. Write Out Your Choices: Brainstorming Possibilities
Get your journal out and brainstorm, making notes on all information relevant to possible choices. Entertain all possibilities, even the ones that seem ridiculous, implausible, or unimaginable.
3. Possible Outcomes: Examining Costs and Rewards
This is where you examine the costs and rewards of each choice noted in step 2. You can diagram, mind map, or make notes of the positives and negatives aspects of the choices and the resulting impact they can have on yourself, your family, and others close to the situation.
4. Investigate: Analyzing Each Choice
- How could each choice affect your desired outcome?
- Assign a rating of 0 to 10, evaluating the importance of the pros and cons in meeting your desired outcome.
- Assign a rating of 0 – 100%: what is the possibility that the upside/downside will occur?
- What is the emotional cost or benefit if you were to make this choice?
- Eliminate some of the choices based on the results of this investigation.
5. Increase Certainty: Minimizing Drawbacks
Assess the drawbacks of the remaining choices. Ponder ways to lessen or erase these drawbacks.
6. Feel Good: Choosing with Confidence
Make the choice that offers you the highest degree of certainty that you will attain your desired outcome. Feel good about the choice you have made, knowing that this is a win-win choice. Whatever takes place as a result of your decision will open up new adventures and experiences. Embrace the outcome as what you need to grow.
After Making a Decision: Embracing the Outcome
1. Become Unattached to the Outcome
Let go of any set idea of what the outcome of your decision should look like, reducing the chances of missing any opportunity that might result. When you have a fixed idea in mind, it is easy to miss a much better opportunity that was nowhere on your radar and looks totally different to what you are expecting. Prepare yourself to enjoy the result the way it is, not necessarily the way you imagined.
2. Accept Full Responsibility for the Decision You Made
Taking responsibility for your decision is one of the first steps in learning and preparation for growth. This does not mean that you become harsh and unforgiving to yourself. Instead, you learn to be content with yourself and even have a bit of fun in the process. Evaluate the results of the decision to learn from the experience, to grow your decision-making muscles, and be your word. Also, be willing to let go of the things that you have no control over. Accepting responsibility for your decisions will help you to be more at peace with yourself and the universe.
3. The Choice Within You: Avoiding Traps
Do not fall prey to the perfect trap, the public opinion trap, the expectation trap, or the self-image trap. Each of these traps will affect you in a negative way. Accept full responsibility for your decision and keep in mind you have the choice to change as you learn. Nothing is final; you can adjust decisions or do a complete 360-degree turn if the situation warrants it. Avoid the belief that there is nothing you can do to change the outcome. Be open to learning and growing. Cultivate patience and persistence. Remain on purpose and on target.