Thursday, May 22, 2014

How do we make decisions?

It's election time once again, and tomorrow we'll be going to the polls to vote. Some of the candidates will be going to Europe, and we'll also be voting for the Councillors in the local elections. How do we choose who we vote for? A lot of us will not vote, and that is also a decision that is made. How did we choose not to vote? What is happening inside our heads as we make our decisions?

If we personally know the person we are voting for, it makes it a lot easier to choose or not choose them. If we have seen them on television, or heard them on the radio, we'll know them a lot better than if we are depending on election posters and flyers that come in through the door. It's unlikely we will have met them in person, unless we meet them if they have called to our door.

Some people like the look of the candidate, and base their decision (usually unconsciously) based on their looks. Some people like the sound of the candidate, and are influenced by that. Some people get a instinctual feeling as to who they are going to vote for, and go with that body sensation intuition. Some people make a logical decision, probably based on the work the person has claimed to have done, or how realistic their promises are. Of course, we also base decisions based on what other people say and feel strongly about, and if the politician stands for something we strongly agree with, we'll vote for them. Mostly our internal mental processes will be a combination of lots of different things, and we'll also have an internal debate with ourselves, that self chatter that goes on in our heads a lot.

How we decide to vote is an example of a decision making strategy, and we have strategies for everything we do. When we are learning something, it is mostly conscious, we are aware of everything we are doing, and have to painstakingly remember what to do next. This is the physical strategy. Then we learn how to do it, and it becomes an unconscious behaviour. We now have an unconscious strategy. For example, if you think of your strategy for brushing your teeth. What do you do first? Do you find the toothbrush or the toothpaste first? What goes in what hand? How do you decide exactly when to start brushing, and how do you know when you are finished? It can be broken down into a series of a lot of steps, and that includes the thought patterns that are happening in our mind at the time.

Sometimes people can have a decision making strategy that doesn't serve them very well, and they find it excruciatingly difficult to make decisions. If the menu has beef or salmon, it's a little easier to make the decision than when there are pages and pages of choices! It is possible to analyse a decision making strategy, and help a person change it to a decision making strategy that works better.

Sometimes we can make a decision based on the amusement generated by the mischief of it. We sent Dustin the turkey to the Eurovision song contest a few years back, and it would be suspected that if he appeared on the polling card tomorrow, it's off to Europe he'd be going again!

Go to http://www.experiencetheworlddifferent.com/ for more details, or ring Daniel Madden on 085 1318344 to arrange your free consultation.
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