My Heart Versus Mind: Striking A Balance During Decision Making

MAKING BETTER LIFE DECISIONS

Hello #scifimultiverse, I trust your day is going well. The theme for this week 1 edition got me thinking. I was discussing a failed project that some women in my community were doing. In that project, you put in around 65,000 naira and earn 130,000 naira after a year with some foodstuffs.

Community Women Cooking And Discussing The Failed Project

This project has been on for about 7 years. I have been pushed several times to join the project, but when I do my calculations, my spirit backs out. So I continued with other projects, but not similar to theirs.
Now, the question is, was this project considered good? Yes. In fact, it was regarded as the best decision so far; some of these women started collecting funds from other women and staking on their behalf.
Suddenly, they started facing issues with paying out. The same women started threatening to sue the company, claiming they staked with their house rent; others said they staked with their children’s school fees, among other complaints.

Therefore, for me, better life decisions sometimes can happen by chance. Not that the person is a champion, but time and chance made it happen. But when it comes to business decisions, we need wits; for instance, we have to scrutinise, analyse, and think carefully before deciding. Again, making life decisions requires a balanced approach involving the heart and mind, meaning we must activate our emotional intelligence while also using critical reasoning to take a deep look at the situation before deciding.

My decision to halt a project I was running, when my instinct immediately advised me to withdraw my 100 USD, taught me an important life lesson because I would have regretted it, assuming I wasted time on that decision. I withdrew my funds the evening of the previous day, and the next morning, I heard the project had crashed. I not only learnt to follow my mind but also to stop when my heart beeped.

Trying to Make Decisions Under the Sun at School

Furthermore, when I face a difficult choice, I work with both my mind and heart. This is because my mind uses critical reasoning. I also use the 5 Whys and root-cause analysis until I reach a point where my heart is comfortable with the decision beyond the surface.

Therefore, a combination of my mind and heart will give me a realistic approach to making decisions; however, this does not mean that those decisions are not bound to fail, but the ability to continue with our WHYs and learn from the failure to make a better decision next time is the major drive that keeps us thriving and building better versions of ourselves.

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