Have you felt powerless around the need to make certain decisions? Has the fear of change stopped you from moving
forward in areas of your life? If so, you are not alone. Everyday, millions of people experience various forms of anxiety or fear while attempting to make decisions. Most of them, just like you, may not know that effective and functional decision making is simply a learned behavior. If you find yourself identifying with this situation, or simply wish to sharpen your decision making skills, it may be time to ask yourself this basic question. How and why do I react to change, and make decisions in the way I do?

Our ability to understand the core issues (beliefs) behind our fear of change, is the key. The optimum goal of decision
making is to operate out of intent, rather than being driven by imagined fears, beliefs or consequences. If we are successful with our decision making process, we are able to focus our attention on our intention, thereby creating a desired outcome, as the result of choosing decisions that have moved us towards our intended goals.

Like it or not, effective decision-making skills are neither intuitive nor inherited. Good or bad, our childhood environment, with all its' ideologies and beliefs, probably contributed more to this learned behavioral skill than any MBA or Ph.D. we may have acquired. The good news is that anyone, at any age can always enhance and improve this important skill. Everyone has felt the fear of change, or imagined failure. However, when the fear of change controls or dominates our life, it may be time to evaluate the process we use in making decisions. If you feel blocked from knowing the reasons why you make decisions, or it seems as though an auto pilot or built-in default mechanism is driving your process based on negative consequences, consider the following alternative.

Imagine yourself taking a more proactive, conscious or co-creative role in your decisions. Know that your first step is
articulating your intention. It is also your most challenging, because life is dynamic and your options are continually changing. As you accept that responsibility and condition, you will begin to understand that our fear of making a mistake (illusion) is everyone's most common concern. As you acknowledge each fear or trigger as they occur, you begin to question the realistic validity of each fear or obstacle. By acknowledging those negative beliefs that have blocked and kept you from acquiring your goals, you can now choose to discard and replace them, with functional decisions that will always move you towards what you have envisioned. At first glance, this exercise may appear complex, but in reality it takes our mind only seconds to process.

One way or another, you are making hundreds of decisions every day. The success of your life reflects the effectiveness of those decisions. We all are ultimately responsible for the outcome of every decision we make. Why not attempt to guarantee the outcome of those decisions by stacking your emotional deck with a process that will automatically create what you intend. With an effective process you can become proficient in choosing decisions that do just that. We get precisely what we focus on. The problem or the solution. The choice is always ours. On which side of that equation have you focused most of your attention?

Truly successful people will tell you, the catalyst for their success is not just their diligent hard work, or even their instinctual awareness. It is how they have learned to embrace change, and how quickly they've dealt with the moment
to moment opportunities that have been presented to them as well as their effectiveness and consistency in making functional decisions.

Author's Bio: 

E.K.Bernshaw created THE TRANSITION PROCESS as a consulting tool for clients in vocational and personal transition. As a business development and marketing consultant for over 25 years, she continues to advise businesses and professionals on issues surrounding their independent venture development, professional growth or vocational changes. She provides a consulting service to OD training programs within corporations, HRD and outplacement groups. She maintains a private practice and coaches and trains other professional counselors and psychologists interested in facilitating this process within their specific modality. As a writer and speaker, she contributes this training to NFP organizations and support groups within the recovery community.