How to Make Better Decisions

The piece of advice for this week comes from a very famous person in the field of creative thinking, Edward de Bono. And the piece of advice is called “Consequence and Sequel” and what that means is before you react and make a bad decision – pause and think about it.

After you take the deep breath and exhale you will feel a fraction of a second of peace and that is the separation between the act and the decision about what to do about the act – the part where you think. Another thing you can do is count to 3, one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three or you can use a red dot.

Consequence and Sequel!

Use It or Lose It!

To use Consequence and Sequel:

  When you feel tension building up or you are about to make a bad decision, you need to put distance between the act and your reaction to it to give yourself time to think it through, there are three ways you can do this:

(1)  Take a deep breath
(2)  Count to 3 – one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three
(3)  Focus on an unrelated object, in my case I put a red dot on my steering wheel and focus on it

  That will give you just enough time to step away from the situation, evaluate it and react in a more positive manner, thus making a better decision

When to Use It…

  When you find yourself about to make a bad decision, flipping out or getting angry.

Discuss…

  Have you ever used consequence and sequel successfully? What was your experience?

That’s the piece of advice for this week!

Until next time remember…Prime Your Pump!
– Howie

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