How To Get Clarity And Make Better Decisions

This week's episode is all about how to get clarity around decisions. One of the critical skills in entrepreneurship is to be a decisive leader. While that sounds beautiful and noble, it is not always easy. Quite often making a decision is not as cut and dry as we would like it to be.

This is not the first time that I've talked about how to make better decisions. In Episode 13, "How to Make Aligned Decisions" in your business focuses on the decision-making process. If you haven't listened to that episode, I invite you to pause this one and go check it out.

I shared the process that I use in my own business and with my client. It allows us to check in to make sure the decisions made in our business are aligned with our values and our integrity.

In that episode, I mentioned that that process begins with a quick check-in. It is to become aware of our mental state before deciding. It's best to feel confident, centered, and empowered because we want to evaluate our options from a place of objectivity.

I suggest this because we must see the desired outcomes without getting caught up in the emotional anxiety of the undesired outcomes.

In this episode, I will walk you through my process to reach objectivity for you to analyze the choices you're making.

The process I'm sharing is the exact process that I use with my clients, indecision, and decision. Procrastination is a real thing. It can become a real problem for you when you have critical decisions to make on time.

Not deciding is a decision. There are real consequences that come with choosing that path.

There's the loss of time, revenue, opportunity, and sometimes options as well. If we wait too long to make a decision, some of the options may no longer be available to us.

If you've ever researched and analyzed that instead of clarity, you ended up overwhelmed... This process will help you break through that analysis paralysis, and get back on track to making an aligned decision.

To help you understand how this process works in real life. I'd like to share with you an example from one woman I coached who was struggling with a decision in her business.

Rose is an online entrepreneur. She recently realized that her website is not working very well for her business. Her frustrations led her to consider leaving WordPress and switching to a comprehensive all-in-one platform such as Kajabi, Kartra, or FG funnels.

She also considered keeping WordPress. Yet updated the theme and added some functionality via plugins. Like most of us, she started researching all her options and got overwhelmed. There's a lot to this decision-making process because there are a lot of variables and a lot of options.

There was no clear winner and clear right choice for her. So what she did was she didn't make a decision. She made no choice. She kept her website as it is even though she knew it was not converting at the rate that it could.

She stayed like that for a long time until it became so painful for her that she knew she had to make a choice. When I talked to her, I walked her straight through this exact process that I'm sharing with you today.

If you follow these processes, you'll end up with much more clarity and confidence about the decision that you need to make.

There are six steps to getting clarity around the decision.

Step one is to perform a mind release.

The first step is to get everything that's going on in your head. Take it out of your head and get it down on paper.

It is taking all the details, thoughts, emotions, facts, figures, and every single thing. Take it out of your head. Write it down on a piece of paper or if you prefer to typewrite it into a document such as a Google Doc or a Word document.

There are a few guidelines to this process.

It's important to know that the mind release does need to be captured tangibly. Processing it through your mind leaving a voice message they're not the same. The information does need to be written whether that's by hand or in a digital format.

Also, this is a stream of the consciousness writing process. That means is that you will write out anything and everything that comes to your mind. Don't judge what you're writing, and don't censor it, release all it onto the paper or into the document.

This is why I call it a mind release because you're releasing the information, emotions, and circumstances around the decision.

If it's in your head, it should get written down, you're going to need that written copy for the next step.

Let's move on to step two, it requires a physical copy of the mind release. If the document is digital, now is the time to print it out.

Step two is to identify the facts.

Take the paper with your mind release. Underlying all the facts that were written down.

Facts are only actual truths that everyone would agree on. They are specific and they are detailed.

Word of caution, sometimes our brain will interpret reasonable information as a fact. Be diligent and only underline the facts that you wrote down.

Then take a separate fresh new piece of paper. Take the facts that you've underlined and write those down in list form. Put that piece of paper aside for now, because we're going to come back to it in a little bit.

Step three. Go back to the mind release, and circle all the stories that you wrote about the facts.

See, we are always dealing with two things. There are the facts and then there are our thoughts about the facts.

It's our thoughts about the facts that create our struggle. It's the source of our indecision.

How has this process been so far? Look with my friend Rose as she was trying to decide about moving her website to another or improving the current one.

As I mentioned, she's on WordPress. She was considering switching to Kajabi, Kartra, or an all-in-one platform that would allow her to manage her emails, calendar, website, and products.

She researched and realized that WordPress could do all the same things, but not her current WordPress. She would need to add plugins to get the operations at the same level as an all-in-one platform.

When she did her mind release, she had written things such as Kajabi is expensive.

"It will take me a lot of time and cost me a lot of money to get my website to the level that I want it to be. I'm going to have to pay for and install new plugins that I may not understand how to use. I don't know how to use Kajabi or Kartra or FG funnels, and I'll have to learn a new platform."

Those were some of her mind-release statements. The thing about that is the facts are not facts. It's expensive. It takes a lot of time. It's not working well. The website is not converting. These are vague.

I had her go through and add the facts to that information, such as Kajabi will cost $150 more a month than currently pay. That's one example.

I had her do with every single item in her concern. We need specific facts and specific details to make an accurate decision.

When I had her circle, the stories about the facts, things such as; it is expensive, takes a lot of time, and I don't know how to do it. Those were the stories in her mind about the facts of what it will take for her to move her website over. Either to get her current website up and running at the optimal level.

Our thoughts include judgments, beliefs, and emotions when we analyze facts in comparison to it. It's important to remember that.

It is these stories that impede our ability to get clarity and to make a decision. This is why we isolate them. After we separate the facts from the stories in our minds, it's time to separate ourselves from the decision.

Step four is to step away.

Take a break from the decision-making process. The brain can last an hour, a day, or a week. If you have the time to wait that long, take the time. You need to give your mind a reprieve from thinking about all the options.

Come back to this process when you feel calm and centered. It's when we are emotionally neutral that we can have objectivity about the decision. When you're ready, it is time to move on to step number five.

Step five is to establish a priority hierarchy.

In this hierarchy, there are four factors to consider.

Time, money, ease, and desired outcome.

What you'll do is place each one of these in a hierarchy from most important to least important.

All you have to do is ask yourself...

Which of these is the number one priority on the list?

Which one is second?

Which one is third?

Which one is fourth?

You want to have a list so that you know which part of this puzzle is the most important to you.

Write this hierarchy list on a separate piece of paper or an index card or even on a note on your phone. But keep it handy because we will need it for the next step.

Step number six with the priority list handy.

It is time to get clarity. By taking the list of facts, priorities, and doing a comparison to find out which one aligns with our highest value.

As you look at the two, ask yourself, which one of these on my fax list aligns with the number one priority. As you're doing that, watch for what news stories about the facts show up in your mind.

When I walk my clients through this process, this is the point where nine times out of ten, they get clarity on which option is the best one.

They've already cleared out any lingering fears and worries. They are ready to make a decision and move forward.

For that last 10%, if they don't have clarity, we go through the process that I outlined in Episode 13 so that they can make an aligned decision.

Quite often, they haven't overcome their fears and are still hanging on to some worries. That's keeping them from having the clarity they need to decide the process.

That episode titled "How to Make Aligned Decisions" is the one that allows them to see what's holding them back.

Oftentimes, it's not about the decision. It's about an emotional or energetic block that is keeping them stuck.

With that awareness, we can coach through what comes up and they can overcome that blog. Then get back on track to building and growing their business.

Those are my six-step processes to getting clarity around a decision. If you want to read this process and see the steps written out, check out the show notes where I have a link to my website where each step is outlined so you can follow the process for yourself.

If you go through the six steps, and the process outlined in Episode 13, but still feel stuck in what to do. Let's hop on a call and talk it out.

At the time of this recording, I am offering free breakthrough sessions where we can hop on a call. Get clear on what emotional, energetic block is keeping you trapped and indecision that prevents you from creating a business and life that you love.