One of the most important personal characteristics necessary to achieve your goals in life is the ability to be decisive and to follow through with your decisions once they are made.

Often we become paralyzed by analyzing the possible outcomes of a decision and in doing so we waste a great deal of time and mental energy. If you have ever agonized over a decision until you were physically and mentally exhausted you will know exactly what I mean.

A useful strategy to help you make decisions is the concept of regret minimalization.

The aim of regret minimalization is to reduce the number of decisions in life that you end up looking back on with regret.

The steps to using regret minimalization are as follows:

1. Project yourself into the future and visualize yourself at the age of 80
2. Imagine that you are looking back on your life
3. Ask yourself which of the options you are trying to decide between will you be more likely to regret missing out on?

Here’s an example to show you how this works:

Liz was a newly graduated teacher who had worked hard at university and had done well in her course. While applying for jobs in her local area, she came across a program that involved teaching in Japan, which was a country she had always wanted to visit.

Three weeks later, Liz received a job offer from a local primary school which was only 5 minutes away from her home. In the same week she also received an offer from the overseas training program.

Liz was faced with the decision to either stay in her familiar surroundings and take up a position at the local school, or to venture into an unknown environment in a foreign country. After much soul searching and advice from family and friends, Liz examined the situation using the regret minimalization strategy.

When she was 80, which option would she be more likely to look back on with regret?

1. Missing out on a position at her local school
2. Missing out on the chance to visit Japan

The regret minimalization strategy helped Liz to make the decision to take the job in Japan. She knew it would not always be easy and that she would be homesick at times but she did not want to look back and regret missing the opportunity to travel and experience another culture.

The next time you’re faced with a decision, I encourage you to use the strategy of regret minimalization as an additional way to examine your options in order to make a considered and well-informed decision.

Until next time,

Dare to Dream!

 Anthony