When faced with a
pending decision, one way to avoid grid lock is to establish immediately a
default option in case you can't make a clear, obvious decision.
The
number one favorite default option is to retain the status quo...just keep on
keeping on. However, with a little imagination, one can usually find a
better decision alternative, even it is only a slight deviation than
the status quo. The default option may not perfectly solve the problem or
personal need, but it represents an immediate alternative. Having a
default option in your back pocket give you some confidence that if worse come
to worse, you would know what decision to make.
For
example, a young, just married couple are moving into an apartment complex
on their college campus after the honeymoon. They originally wanted a
simple, inexpensive, one-bedroom apartment, that was big enough to hold their
joint belongings that would be expanding greatly with all the wedding gifts.
They were disappointed when all the one-bedrooms apartments were taken. They
were eventually offered two choices. The first choice was a simple,
inexpensive two-bedroom, one-level apartment, which was only slightly more expensive than the one
bedroom they were initially seeking. The second choice was a new,
modern, two bedroom, split level apartment with a loft/study. It was
35%e more expensive. They couldn't decide which of the two
offers to pick. Very wisely, they
selected a default option which was the least expensive of the
two. It satisfied their original need, provided more room than a
one-bedroom apartment, and was only slightly more
expensive. They
would think about whether they were willing to pay extra for the more modern,
slightly larger apartment. Thus, they were able to concentrate on
planning their wedding, not having to worry about the apartment until the
commitment date arrived. As a post script, when the time
came to make a decision, they still couldn't decide between the two
options, so
they just went with the default decision. They never felt pressured
nor did they anguish over the decision. Having a default option gives you
peace of mind in knowing that indecision would not spoil the decision that must
be made.
So, rule number
one in decision making is always have a default decision in your hip pocket,
even before you start deliberating. If an obviously better
alternative cannot be found, then rely on the default decision. Still, if the decision is an
important one, having a default decision doesn't mean that you can ignore the
work that should be done in finding an even better choice. Thus,
by definition, a better choice
is simply one that is better than the default decision...not better over
all. If you do find a better alternative, then it becomes your new default
decision. Keep up this process
of finding successive improvements to the default option until time runs out. When you finally
are forced to make a choice, you choose the best alternative that you
have identified to date. Often, the choice will be the default
option. So, make sure the default option
is a good one.
