Have you ever faced a decision you just couldn’t make, even though you had all the information and knew your options? Somehow, every time you tried to choose, you found another reason to put it off.
I find that a lot of leaders want to learn how to be more decisive, because they know this feeling. They have so many decisions to make that they experience decision fatigue.
Earlier this year, I put off a simple decision for weeks. I needed to choose a contractor for a small home project and had two good quotes in front of me. Both were solid, and their references checked out. I double-checked the numbers and stressed out about my decision. I found myself worrying that I’d spend a lot of money and get a less-than-satisfying result, even though both were experts and highly recommended.
By the fourteenth day, the quotes were the same as before. The only difference was the amount of energy I’d spent thinking about the decision, and I was exhausted.
I ended up picking one, and it worked out great!
I’ve noticed that a lot of my clients do the same thing. We don’t hesitate because we lack courage. We hesitate because we’re searching for the perfect choice, but perfect isn’t real.
What people get wrong about how to be more decisive
When people ask me how to be more decisive, they often think they need more confidence or more information. So they get another opinion, make another spreadsheet, and seek out additional information. But more input rarely makes the decision easier. It just makes it harder to feel sure enough to act.
There’s actually a name for this. Herbert Simon, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, explained the difference between maximizing and what he called satisficing. He found that effective people rarely wait for the one perfect answer.
“The satisficer looks for a course of action that is satisfactory or ‘good enough.’”
Choosing what’s good enough doesn’t mean lowering your standards. It means realizing that after a certain point, searching for perfect costs more than the decision is worth.
So here is the subtle shift
Stop focusing on making the perfect decision. Instead, focus on making your decision work.
Most choices matter less in the moment you make them and more in how you follow through afterward. That’s the real key to being more decisive. You decide, and then you make it a good decision by what you do next.
Here are a few ways to practice this week:
- Set a deadline for your decision that matches how important it is. If you can easily change your mind later, spend minutes on it, not days.
- Consider what “good enough” looks like before you start, so you know what you’re aiming for.
- If you find yourself seeking more information, pause and ask whether you really need it or if you’re just looking for permission to feel certain.
This small change might seem too simple to matter, but you’ll notice your week feels lighter when decisions stop weighing you down.
So if you’ve ever wondered how to be more decisive, the real answer probably isn’t more analysis. It’s being willing to call something good enough, take action, and trust yourself to adjust as you go. The decision you’ve carried for too many days won’t be clearer on day fifteen. It’ll just feel heavier.
So pick one decision you’ve been putting off this week, decide that good enough really is enough, and make the call. Then reply and let me know how it went. I always enjoy hearing about the small changes you’re making.
