If you own a business, and even if you don’t, life is full of decision-making. And often the decisions seem to be between two or more good things. We learn at a young age to make lists of pros and cons and then to weigh out the best possible solution.
But what do you do when you feel like you don’t even know what the choices are? You might feel like you are in uncharted territory. If you are starting a business, you truly might not have the information for the next step. Or you are presented with many, conflicting options.
Then what do you do? I see many biz people get practically paralyzed in decision-making. I also see people second-guessing after decisions are made.
There is a simple exercise you can use to get clear and feel confident in your decisions. This exercise involves turning to your inner guidance. You might call it intuition, or your higher self. You may even look to spiritual guidance. If you wonder about the accuracy of this exercise- when is the last time your intuition or gut feeling was wrong?
I think intuition is marvelous and dependable. I also think we don’t use it enough. We put together the facts, we look at what everyone else has done, and then we approach decision-making logically. I agree that logic is a cool thing. It got me through school and graduate school, and is helpful. But when there is a need to create a solution that requires new thinking or a new paradigm, logic often stops us- we don’t see alternate solutions.
The exercise is to ask questions and look for the answers through intuition, inner guidance… Take some deep breaths, get quiet, close your eyes. Affirm: I am connecting to my inner guidance. When you start to feel relaxed, ask a question.
An example question is- What is the next step for me in my biz? You could write this question down and wait for an answer. You could ask this question before going to sleep and see if the answer comes to you during the night or in the morning.
More example questions:
- What are action steps I can take to grow my biz in a new direction?
- What is an exciting result that my clients really want?
- What training would benefit me right now in my business?
- Where could I receive more help in my business?
- What needs to change about me in order for me to grow my business?
And you can of course create your own questions.
You know when you are getting inner guidance when you feel a sense of “rightness” even if you feel a little fear. If you feel full of angst or irritated, it may be ego that you are hearing. You can even ask, “Is this my ego?” I often ask for a sure sign. I will ask the question then make this request. “When I hear an answer I will absolutely know that this is inner guidance.”
Look for the feeling of inner peace. And remember fear coming up as you are growing is normal. Don’t interpret fear as the answer. You can even ask, “Is this just a feeling of fear or is it a signal that I should not move forward?” The more you ask questions of inner guidance (God, Universe, Higher Self) the more you will feel and experience answers. Practice this technique and you will get answers more rapidly and you will learn to trust the answers more fully.
Sheri Kaye Hoff
Coach, Trainer, and Author, Sheri Kaye Hoff, is a Business Coach known for inspiring massive action and a catalyst for personal and business growth, joy, and profits in a way that is fun, relaxing, and fulfilling, Sheri inspires people to do the work they love and make more money. Sheri helps business owners and professionals to relax into success. She uses both spiritual and practical techniques to obliterate blocks and create dramatic change. She is a business, leadership, happiness, and inner game expert. She has overcome nearly dying, and the loss of her brother at an early age. She has made it her life mission to discover the keys to happiness and success and then share them with her clients and community. Learn More About Sheri
5 thoughts on “Making Powerful and Confident Decisions with This Exercise”
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Sheri, I think the questions you give as examples are excellent ways to make a step up.
These are really valuable questions even before you ever start your business! My clients are often paralyzed with decision making even before they launch, taking longer than needed to create their business plans. I speed up that process for them and remove a lot of the fears that you talk about in your post. This is a good one for my customers; I’ll tweet it! Thanks.
Sheri,
One of the things that’s great about getting older is I’ve learned to trust my intuition more. Trusting my intuition does make decision-making easier.
A while back I read about something called “decision fatigue”. There are only so many decisions we can make in a day so we’d better focus on important ones. Apparently President Obama wanted to ensure his decisions were important ones so he eliminated trivial decisions. He eats the same breakfast every day and wears only blue or grey suits.
We can do the same thing by creating a written marketing plan. Make all your marketing decisions in one day, then the next time you go to do some marketing you don’t have any decisions to make. You just do the next item in your plan.
Hi Sheri,
I love this blogpost. It gives concrete steps to to help when building a business. This can often be a lonely and confusing process, but blogs like yours can be a lighthouse guiding entrepreneurs home.
Thank you,
Genevieve Kohn
http://wellsource.me
One tricky way to nail down what your intuition is telling you about a decision is to flip a coin. While it’s in the air, pay attention to which way you’re wanting it to come down. That will quickly let you know what you feel is the right decision.