Making the right decision the first timearound will save you grief and money
You know what I'm talking about. We've all made hasty decisions in the spirit of spontaneity, or 
in the hopes of saving a bunk. It usually seems like a good idea at the time, but these are the decisions that often come back to bite us in the butt. A lot of the time, just taking a moment to consider our options and do our homework would result in better outcomes.
Like most people, I've had to learn this lesson the hard way, again and again. For instance, just about a year ago I decided to redo my backyard. I wanted to save money, so I hired a cheap gardener. The only direction I gave him was to ask him to plant the grass commonly referred to as "horsetail" along the back fence. Of course, I didn't know a thing about horsetail, but I'd seen it several times and thought it was beautiful. I figured the gardener, with his expert skills, would take care of the rest.
As it so happens, horsetail is extremely aggressive and, if not planted correctly, can spread and take over everything in the yard. Unfortunately neither I nor the expert gardener knew this, so once the grass was planted and had some time to take hold, I noticed it was starting to spread everywhere. I could see that, if left unchecked, it would eventually take over the entire lawn.
And that is when I realized my error. In my effort to save money by hiring a cheap gardener instead of a professional landscaper, I had landed myself in a difficult situation. I had a plant that was growing like a weed, overtaking my yard, and even encroaching on my neighbor’s property. I have since hired a new gardener who advised me to uproot all of the horsetail in order to contain the problem, an expensive undertaking. In the end, I had to spend far more money fixing the problem than I had saved in hiring the first gardener. Had I taken the time to do my research and make the right decision the first time around, I would have ended up with a much better outcome.
We've all done something like this. We make decisions based on money, feelings, or in the spur of the moment, like those impulse buys we end up returning or using for next year's white elephant gift.
How do you make the right decision in the first place? The book Indecisive, by the Heath brothers, is a great guide to decision-making. It offers useful tools for better decision-making, something I am in the process of getting better at it.
From the Heath brothers, I learned that we should ask ourselves three questions before making an important decision:
They were driven discount viagra pdxcommercial.com for over 400 miles to an unknown location, where their cargo was unloaded and they were finally released. Different solutions are there to treat various types of wellbeing levitra generika 40mg issues. This medication is required to be taken viagra fast with the help of water and nothing else. But there is a possibility that if you're a young man and like to go to clubs on the weekend levitra uk https://pdxcommercial.com/author/maxsonb/ is a good choice for you.
a) What advice would you give to a friend if he/she were in your situation? Sometimes it's easy to give advice, but we aren’t always good at applying that advice to our own lives. Taking the time to stop and reflect on how you would advise a dear friend who might be facing the same decision will help you see the situation from a different perspective, and will allow you to consider options that may not occur to you otherwise.
b) Ask yourself what you would do if the option you are leaning towards wasn't available. What other options are there to consider? By removing what you want to do, you are forced to look at other, possibly better alternatives. This step is important if you are someone who tends to approach decisions with a narrow frame of mind.
c) What would have to happen in order for you to fail? If you were to make a decision that led to failure, what factors would be the cause of that failure? By making assumptions of failure, you will be looking into potential flaws that your decision might have, a perspective that will help you find a way to correct them.
Change happens, and you will have to make decisions in life. Of course these are only three examples among many different ways to approach decision-making, but these three have been especially helpful to me. They offer a good start to making better decisions and avoiding more expenditures and headaches in the future.
-------
Skillfully edited by Tara May
Recent Comments