Four Powerful Questions to Help You Get Unstuck and Make Effective Decisions
The Cartesian Questions
Learn four questions to transform your decision-making through uncovering limiting beliefs, gaining new perspectives and getting unstuck.
Do you hate making decisions? Do you procrastinate when you are faced with an important choice? Do you often feel stuck on important decisions? You are not alone. Making decisions takes time and energy, both of which are valuable and finite resources.
To reduce decision fatigue productivity experts recommend reducing the number of decisions you need to make each day. They suggest things like choosing a work uniform, or eating the same thing for breakfast daily. You reduce decision fatigue when you follow a schedule. A regular schedule for activities and tasks is a form of batch decision-making. For example, if you are a runner and schedule a run for each morning, you don’t wake up every day and decide whether or not you will go for a run. You just do it (no pun intended).
Some decisions should be delegated. Leaders and business owners need to make certain decisions themselves, but there’s probably some decisions you regularly make that could be successfully handed off to someone else. Reflect on some recent decisions. Could your partner have dealt with it? Would your assistant have made a competent choice? If you notice you are making a potentially overwhelming number of decisions, it could be worth exploring your beliefs around why these decisions fall to you. You may notice thoughts and feelings around trust or control come up, or you might become aware of other fears. Talking this through in a coaching session is an effective way to get clarity and understanding around any unhelpful beliefs or habits.
Do you put off making decisions? It is true that some decisions are actually best delayed. It’s worth noting though, that the decision to delay is of course a decision in itself.
There are many decisions that can’t be put on autopilot, delegated or delayed. Would you even want to? Decision-making or getting to choose is a privilege. It is a necessary part of business, work and life, and it is empowering.
Exercising our agency through making choices - especially decisions that are likely to have a large impact on our business, on others or on ourselves - could provoke anxiety, but having choices is a powerful opportunity. It is an opportunity for us to lead and take action. Especially if you find decision-making challenging, I invite you to try reframing this responsibility. Can you view your opportunity to make this decision as a privilege, something to be grateful for? You get to choose!
So what methods or processes do you use when faced with a big decision? What have you found effective? What have you found doesn’t work well?
There are many ways to make a decision and you have probably tried a few of them. A simple ‘pros and cons’ list is all you need to make certain decisions. However, decision-making is usually most effective when you rely on a combination of approaches. (One caveat is that seeking out too much input and using an excess of decision-making methods could be a form of procrastination.)
When considering an option have you ever thought, “It looks good on paper, but my gut is telling me ‘no’”? Developing and trusting your intuition is powerful. We are whole beings. Important decisions require an holistic approach. Talking through a decision with a trusted mentor, advisor or coach is one way to explore your intuition and the potential consequences of a decision. I have noticed I can have something going round and round in my head and when I verbalise it with a trusted coach the answer becomes obvious. I have seen this with clients too. Other times, when thinking through my decision with a coach I discover that I need to take further steps or collect more information so I can make the best decision.
Have you tried different decision-making strategies to varying success? If you would like an unbiased thinking partner to support you as you make a decision I invite you to reach out via email to see if it may be suitable for us to work together. If you would like an additional decision-making tool that encourages you to see different perspectives, you could try ‘The Cartesian Questions’.
The Cartesian Questions
These questions were formulated by the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes. Even though, initially, the four questions may seem repetitive, they are designed to help you carefully consider your decision or goal. Stick with them and allow yourself time to answer each one. These are simple and powerful questions that push you to see various perspectives and may unearth beliefs, thoughts or blocks you were not aware of.
Activity
Write out the question in full by inserting the choice or goal that you are considering. You can download a free printable worksheet that has space for you to complete your answers. Writing your answers by hand slows your thought processes and allows for powerful insights. The worksheet also includes reflective questions to help you dig deeper. If you are working with a business or leadership coach, you may want to try this worksheet first and then discuss your answers and insights during a coaching session. Alternatively, the questions could help you come to a conclusion about an important decision and you could use a coaching session to think through how to best implement your choice.
Here are the four questions (or download the worksheet here):
What will happen if I do (make this choice/achieve this goal)?
What will happen if I don’t (make this choice/achieve this goal)?
What won’t happen if I do (make this choice/achieve this goal)?
What won’t happen if I don’t (make this choice/achieve this goal)?
Let’s consider a hypothetical example. Imagine you are thinking of starting a business whilst still working a traditional job. I will keep the sample answers short and straight-forward, but go as deep with your answers as you need to.
What will happen if I do start a business?
I will lose some of my free time in the evenings. I will create a more sustainable lifestyle for myself in the long term.
What will happen if I don’t start a business?
I will be stuck in my current job longer than I want to be.
What won’t happen if I do start a business?
I won’t have as good a social life. I won’t be able to take the ski vacation I planned for next year because I will need to invest that money in my business.
What won’t happen if I don’t start a business?
I won’t know what it is actually like to start and run this business and experience all the learning that goes with that. I won’t be able to offer this valuable service and help people in this way because I can’t see other opportunities for me to do that right now.
This is a hypothetical example, but it gives you an idea of how the questions work. Try it out and notice how they nudge you to think differently. If you want to practise out-of-the-box thinking, the Cartesian Questions are an effective tool. I notice that often I need to read one or two of the questions a few times before I can answer them.
If decision-making is something that is difficult for you, or if you are facing a particularly challenging decision, I empathise. As a business owner or leader you know your decisions impact others and you take that responsibility seriously. You also know that even when a decision reflects your values and the values and goals of your organisation, there are people that may be negatively impacted. All decisions come with risks and consequences. The good news is that most decisions are not irreversible, so use all the resources you have available to you and make a decision you can stand by.
I wish you all the best with whatever challenging decision you are facing right now. Facing a challenging decision is an opportunity - an opportunity to lead, to take powerful action and to choose.
You can download your worksheet including the Cartesian Questions and questions for reflection here.
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