Skills for Making Great Decisions

Lesson 1

Born Decision Makers

Your brain is amazingly well-equipped with all kinds of tools for making great decisions! Natural skills, such as pattern matching and problem framing, often help you make wise choices. But just owning tools doesn't mean you know how to use them skillfully. The first lesson will discuss how to make the most of some of your natural abilities and also avoid some common pitfalls, like bias, myopia, and overconfidence.

Needs, Wants, and Actions

Did you know that you make decisions virtually every minute of every day, even in your sleep? Just as drops of water, given enough time, can carve out a canyon, all those decisions—even the little ones—will eventually have a huge impact on your life. In this lesson, you'll learn about five kinds of decisions you make every day, as well as the critical difference between actions and intentions!

Achieving Personal Goals

What's the difference between a goal and a dream? A goal is something you can control through your own efforts, where a dream depends on luck or fate. When you want something, how do you know if it's a dream or a goal? How can you make your wishes come true? You'll find many of the answers in this lesson. The lesson will talk about short-term and long-term goals, the steps for achieving goals, and how to know when you should change your goals.

Making Everyday Decisions

This lesson will discuss when and how to pay close attention to those little, seemingly unimportant everyday decisions that really do make a difference. You'll learn how to identify three types of decisions—conscious, unconscious, and subconscious—and know when decisions for change need to be made. You'll develop some very useful skills for planning, prioritizing, and dealing with that thief of time, procrastination.

Dealing With Crisis

What is a crisis? Is it something that happens outside of you, or is it how you feel? What are the qualities that make a situation critical? How can you make the best decisions possible when time and information are limited but you're under a lot of pressure to take action? This lesson will help you cope with uncertainty and prepare for the unexpected. You'll learn techniques that can help you relax and cope better, regardless of what may be happening around you.

Dealing With Emotions

Life would certainly be dull if you didn't have feelings! Good feelings—like love, joy, and laughter—give you pleasure. Bad feelings—like confusion, sorrow, and guilt—can help you learn and grow. But feelings often conflict with logic and reason and get people into trouble. How do you know whether to listen to your emotions or ignore them when it comes to making decisions? You'll find some of the answers in this lesson.

Making Decisions With Others

Like emotions, other people certainly help to make life worth living. But boy—can they ever complicate things when it comes to making good decisions! This lesson will discuss some important skills for setting good boundaries with others and dealing with disagreement. You'll learn how to develop attitudes that are essential for good relationships and how to work effectively with others to make the best possible decisions.

Learning to Manage Risk

You've heard the expression "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Sometimes you have to risk a little to gain a lot. But when is it best to go out on a limb, and when is it best to hold on to the trunk? This lesson will go over some foolproof guidelines for managing risk. You'll also decide if you're basically a risk-taker, a play-it-safe type, or somewhere in between.

Understanding Luck

Luck happens. But are you completely at its mercy, blown around on the sea of life by the winds of change? The answer is no! In this lesson, you'll learn how the element of luck affects what you expect from life and how to use that to your advantage. You'll find out how to avoid being misled by superstition and wishful thinking, as well as how to use positive expectations to help steer your life the way you want it to go.

Recovering From Mistakes

Have you ever made a mistake? Do you expect that you may someday make another one? If so, then the topics you'll explore in this lesson are important! You'll learn about some of the main reasons people make poor decisions, as well as both healthy and unhealthy ways to respond to your own errors. You'll learn how to recover from mistakes, turning them into opportunities to learn and grow.

Changing Habits

Habits can be terrific time-savers! They often allow you to do the right thing automatically, without even having to think about it. On the other hand, there are also those other kinds of habits—the ones that lead you to do the wrong things automatically! This lesson will give you power over your own habits as you learn skills for developing good habits and getting rid of the ones you don't need.

Decision-Making Tools and Resources

Throughout this course, you'll use a journal to help you learn about and practice some good decision-making skills. In the final lesson, you'll learn more about the power of journaling. You'll also get some ideas for how to use other very useful decision-making tools, including notes, lists, and diagrams. Finally, you'll get some good ideas about when to consult experts and when to wing it on your own.