You’ve probably have already made a hundred gazillion decisions in your life already. Some you’ve given very little thought to while others you have agonized over. There even may be some to this day that you remain indecisive about. Some decisions are quick and easy and others have taken a considerable amount. They can range from being insignificant to life changing.
You even may feel confident about the decisions you’ve made so far, but then life can throw you a ringer out of left field and you find yourself having to make decisions you never thought you ever would have to make.
The funny thing about decision making is that we think for the most part that it’s the result of some sort of logical, rational thought process. We’ve haven’t a clue as to where it’s coming from, but we do hear our inner mental chatter carry on about it. After all, we want to make sure we’re making the right decision, so we may even sleep on it or talk it over with friends or family.
There are also all kinds of decision making strategies and the grand-daddy being the Ben Franklin method. Remember you take a piece of paper and drawn a line down the center from top to bottom. On one side you list all the positive points or reasons why you should and on the other side you list all the negative points or reasons not to.
While you think consciously you’re putting a lot of thought into this decision making process, little do you know that inside your brain a gazillion neurons are processing all kinds of information related to this decision.
You even have a decision making central processing area located in your frontal lobe, which is the foremost part of your brain. Here, pieces of information coming from other parts of your brain, hook up with other functions – such as problem solving, reasoning, planning, emotions and long term memories tied to emotions.
So, actually your decision making is a rather intricate process that will eventually percolate up and into your conscious awareness. Now, that should give you some peace of mind knowing how much your frontal lobe is engaged in the decision process.
But, how do you explain all the stories you’ve heard of people, who should know better, making stupid decisions. We can’t help but ask ourselves “what were they thinking?” That’s the brain at work too. Only this time, it’s the subconscious part of the system. That means while you think you’re being rational and logical your subconscious may have another agenda it’s promoting.
The idea of making good decisions may be just a little more complicated than you imagined. But once you understand there are conscious and subconscious parts to decision making, you really can make any decision that’s the best decision for you.
More to come …
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Interesting! Especially considering we do make so many decisions daily, big and small. I look forward to hearing more, especially I’m wondering if those who make decisions quickly have better developed brains or at least the part of the brain that make decisions?
I know one of the most agonizing things we can do with our brains is go back and forth, back and forth on something we just can’t decide on!