What is your process for making a very tough decision?

If there are just as many pros as there are cons, I just follow my my first mind, or first instinct.

Coming to terms with the fact that change is not always a bad thing. People, especially children, adjust. I think change is good and makes for a well rounded individual.

I go with my gut feeling, then don’t look back. Hind sight is always 20/20 but real life isn’t!

Flip a coin until it comes out the way I wanted to go anyway.

If you’re leaning towards one side, go for it. If you can find more pros and/or cons to weight it one direction or the other, then do that. And if you really have to (and if it’s applicable), set numerical values to all of the pros and cons on an even, non-biased scale and determine the answer mathematically. It’s kind of odd doing it, but I’ve used it successfully.

I pick the choice that will cause the least amount of damage, usually. The lesser of two evils is still evil I know, but that is why they call them tough decisions.

Intuition, gut feeling if it feels good, do it,thats my motto especially if the feeling is positive and out there, have also confided in the chosen few with opinions highly regarded and valued,usually a winner, but if doubts creep in at any point or thinking too much I dont proceed.

I sit on it and think about it for as long as possible. I approach it from every angle and play out different scenarios in my head. I’ll often do this repeatedly, comparing ideas side-by-side to see which are better than the others, weeding them out and trying to find a solution that feels best. Most of the time, one choice will be evidently more right than the other(s). It can be based on practicality or based on feeling. If I’m really torn, I go in the direction my gut is pulling me.

Once I have weighed up the pros and cons, and if appropriate taken advice from people who know me and the situation, I will go with my gut feeling. Sometimes to make the decision, I need to sleep on it though and let my brain mull over things. If I do this, eventually the best option for me will come to the surface and I will know I am doing the right thing for me (and others if others are affected).

Well, at the risk of sounding redundant, I do what pretty much everybody here does… I think logically about the pros ans cons, I mull it all over, then I do what my gut says, then I regret all the time I spent mulling. Good luck with your decision, @SuperMouse , wardrobe choices aside (I’m not sure that green sweater was the best pick!) you seem to make good life choices.

I ask for advice from people I trust. Good luck with your decision!

I would go with my gut feeling.

Each person has their own life to live. A good example is a teenager about to leave the nest and to make it through a tough world.

You know the pros and cons of your delima.

You know someone will be hurt, but who will be hurt the less and likely to get over your decision the quickest?

@rooeytoo , that is my process as well! You can really make yourself miserable by second-guessing yourself all the time. Sure, you weigh the pros and cons, but then make a decision and live with the consequences, be they good or bad.

Toss a coin!

Find out how they relate to your life goals.

I actually make any tough decision in a very easy way…I close my eyes for a while, sit in isolation….I talk to myself for a while. I pray to almighty to suggest me a right way. Then I open my eyes whatever my heart directs at that moment, I do the same and believe me my decisions have never failed.

No lists of pros and cons for me. I learned a long time ago that they won’t help me. Big, tough decisions are not a matter of a balance sheet. If anything, the list—and this is hard for a compulsive list-maker to confess—is only going to lead me astray.

For the past three decades, I haven’t faced any tough decision without consulting my husband. What he does for me is ask me questions. His questions help me shear away the nonessentials and get to the heart of the matter. He doesn’t tell me what to do or what he would do. He helps me weigh the important parts of the question without the distractions of the trivial and the irrelevant.

And he doesn’t do this until I go to him and ask for a consultation. By that time, I’ve thought it up one side and down the other and come to the conclusion that I’m stuck. He can help me sort it out in under an hour even with total life-changers. Years ago it used to take two or three hours, but we’ve had practice. Sometimes just one key question is all it takes for me to get clear on the right choice for me.

Correction. He had no part in my own go/no-go decisions with respect to him. I made them all by myself, and I went with my gut. Wasn’t wrong, either.

I usually decide with something that has more pros than cons. If I decide on something with more cons than pros, it would be something that will have a really good impact for the rest of my life and the cons will just be there for the mean time.

Think back to why this came up in the first place. Is it a better decision that will always better your life or something that after awhile mess things up.