Do you find it challenging to make important career decisions? You are not alone! Making decisions is one of the most energy consuming things our brains are capable of. It’s hard to believe, but deciding what you are going to have for lunch draws on the same mental energy you need to decide which career direction to pursue. Just imagine how your decision-making capacity could grow, if you pre-decided some of your daily small, even minute choices? I am excited to share a powerful pre-decide tool with you that will help you reserve more of your precious mental energy for really important career decisions.
Become Aware of Your Daily Decisions
The first step towards pre-deciding is to become aware of all the small decisions you make every day. From the moment you wake up to the moment you fall asleep, you are making hundreds of small, seemingly easy decisions, such as what to wear or what to have for dinner. Make a list of some of the choices you make every day as you run a scenario of a typical day from getting up to falling asleep. Then circle the daily decisions that could easily be pre-decided ahead of time.
Decide What to Pre-Decide
When I learnt about the pre-deciding, I was a bit sceptical. I wondered if it would rob my life of spontaneity and creative expression. When I created my list of daily decisions I noticed that I made a lot of daily cooking decisions. Because I enjoy cooking, thoughts about cooking are pleasurable for me, so I never saw it as a problem. However, when I realized that my ponderings about dinner were using up valuable mental capacity that I would rather spend for important business decisions, I was willing to experiment with pre-deciding.
How about YOU? Which of your daily choices frequently cross your mind? Consult your list of daily decisions and choose one that seems easy and maybe even fun to pre-decide. Over time you can pre-decide more, but for now stick with one pre-decision commitment as a powerful start. What do you want to pre-decide to free up precious mental energy for your important decisions?
Make Pre-Deciding a Helpful Habit
Once I had chosen to pre-decide on dinner, I wondered when the best time would be to create a weekly meal plan. On Saturday morning, while I was riding my bike home from the farmers market, I noticed that I was already dreaming up possible menu options for the week ahead. I realized then and there that the perfect time to create a meal plan for the week was right after returning from my weekly trip to the market. Enthusiastically I sat down and quickly created a meal plan for the week ahead, taking into consideration the fresh vegetables I had just bought, the food we had left in our fridge as well as our anticipated schedule and activities of each week day. In joyful anticipation, I posted my first meal plan on our fridge.
Over to YOU! Which well-established habit do you want to anchor your pre-decision to? When does it make most sense for you to pre-decide? Make it as specific and as easy to follow as possible. After all, your pre-decision should free up mental space and not add further complications.
Celebrate Your Growing Mental Capacity for Important Career Decisions
Throughout the week, I noticed that I was thinking about food much less. Whenever food thoughts crossed my mind, I simply reminded myself that I had already pre-decided and swiftly returned to the task I was focusing on.
What surprised me even more was that I didn’t even have to follow the meal plan all the time for it to free up my mental capacity. If suppertime approached and I felt like switching up the plan, I did. I was relieved that my pre-decided meal plan left lots of wiggle room for spontaneity and creativity.
I encourage you to celebrate the subtle shifts and changes in your daily energy as you engage with your new pre-decision habit. Just like me, you may be wondering what you would like to pre-decide next. How can you further simplify your life and focus on your really important life and career decisions? Jot down your pre-decide ideas for future use and focus on establishing your one pre-decide habit for now.
Now that you are well on your way to free up precious mental energy, you are ready to take another powerful step: Book your free career clarity consultation, NOW!
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