How to Bust Decision Paralysis

What's the worst that could happen?

How many times have you been asked this when making an important decision? It's a good question. But it's incomplete.

Let's say you're trying to decide whether to leave one job for another. A friend might ask, "What's the worst that could happen?" Well, dear friend, the job might suck or I might be terrible at it or I might get fired, or, or, or… And now you're on a downward anxiety spiral toward all the bad things that might happen. Could you recover from these? Absolutely, but the choice just got a little bit scarier.

Now, let me introduce another question for you to consider.

What's the best that could happen?

Hmm… Well, now that's interesting. It could be amazing. I could start feeling fulfilled at work. I might start using all my potential and leap into new skills and leadership I didn't even know I was capable of. That feels nice.

It also feels really pie in the sky. There are a lot of "ifs" with these two questions. Not a lot of certainty.

Let me introduce another question.

What's the worst that could happen if I don't?

Yup, I just flipped the whole decision on its head. Not making a decision is making a decision and it’s often easier to look at the repercussions of that because it's a situation more known to us.

Let's go back to our job switch example. The worst that could happen if I don't leave my job is boredom, burnout, and resentment. I can definitely see myself headed in that direction, or else I wouldn't be thinking of leaving my job at all, you might think.

Okay. One final question.

What's the best that could happen if I don't?

Wait. There's a best that could happen if I DON'T make a switch?? I hadn’t considered that… Okay, let me try… Well, it's stable and I know what I'm getting. I could leverage my existing network within the company and try to find a new role or new responsibilities that might stretch my skills and re-engage me in my work. Then I wouldn't have to make a huge transition and I'd like what I was doing better.

You've just pushed yourself to explore the decision from a wider lens than you thought you had available to you.

This line of questioning is an extremely helpful tool when going through the decision-making process. Visually, it would look something like this.

 With this layout, you're now able to see the full scope of potential consequences of making your decision. And, I'd add two additional questions to help you evaluate your options.

One - What is the likelihood or certainty of this result happening?

You may decide that the likelihood of you getting fired from the new job is actually not all that likely, but the likelihood of getting burnt out at the current one is EXTREMELY likely.

Two - How might you maximize or minimize the chances of the outcome occurring?

You may decide that the best-case scenario of you staying in your current job would actually be pretty great and you want to reach out to a few internal contacts before committing to something new.

End result here, you can make a more informed decision. One that feels less driven by fear or avoidance of the unknown and more by the intentional choice of what you do know.

Think about an action or upcoming decision you'd like to make. Give it a shot! What's the worst that could happen?