Develop Your Decision Making Skills By Working On Your Ability To Learn From Experience

“The difference between school and life? In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.” -Tom Bodett

Success should not be seen only in the big picture as a big great bang. Rather it should be seen as a process that begins with internalizing certain principles which if applied would help work one's climb to the top.Being successful require one’s ability to deliver results as at when needed. Nobody wants failure, we all want to get results and be successful. However, achieving the right results begins with making the right decisions. Decision making is a very critical aspect of living a successful life.

In this article you will learn how to improve your decision making skills by enhancing your ability to utilize “experience and intelligence” towards achieving the right results. Experience, being the knowledge gained by repeated trials can only be of any benefit when intelligently applied to present situation. You will drastically reduce the likelihood of wrong decision making/repeated failure by applying these mind enlightening tips:

 Learn to learn from experience: the question is not how much you have experienced but what actually you have learn t from it, which is what eventually pays. Experience is not always about years and decades, the seconds and minutes that trickle into hours are as important as the years you suppose will create experience. Value every second to learn from it. Apply the DON’T principle and you will be amazed at what you will achieve. There are two fundamental virtues that you gain when you discipline yourself to learn from experience

You gain the ability to discern time,

you also gain a good sense of judgment

 Be patient: patience creates experience; you will never find the opportunity to learn and pick valuable lessons from an experience if you don’t take your time in seeing it through. The world today is that fast that people compromise time and excellence. My father always tells me “better do a thing perfectly, than cover multiple tasks without actually doing any of them well” The greatest minds have one common attribute they share which is “patience”. The finest footballers are those that are patient on the ball, and because they spend time on the ball they virtually don’t think of what to do when on the ball.

 Be intelligent: Intelligence like success is not a rear gift bestowed on a selected few, when you decide to have it, seek it and you will find it. Things don’t just happen they are made to, virtues are not always born they are also learnt. Intelligence begins with the details; it comes with perception and action. Experience gives you what to expect while intelligence tells you what to do and perhaps how to execute it. Your perceptive ability to sort and utilize the slightest of information in a given data to achieve result is being intelligent. Intelligence is the ability to read situations, know intentions and create the stuff needed to act accordingly. The best results can also be achieved by obtaining the information for making the right decision. Information is the basis for important decision.

 Utilize the power of repetition and consistency: repetition is the mother of retention. Train your mind to preplay events, that way you get prepare for them as well as familiarize with the situation so much so that you almost don’t think of what to do when you encounter it. I have found that the more time one spends trying to reach a decision, the more complex and difficult it seems to achieve. Prioritize the exercise of your mind; you can’t afford to leave the mind quiescent. Consistency is everything else; success is more of consistency than skill.
It is a fact that history has a way of repeating itself, and most times for the sad reasons. Certain unpleasant things will continually repeat on you until you gain their experience and master them. History will be kind to me for I intend to write it- Winston Churchill

 Experience begins with the decision to learn and master a situation. Experience doesn’t come by doing something over and hoping that you will get to the point of absolute familiarity and mastery of it. Experience is more of taking the decision to master a thing than hoping for it to happen.

 Being advance in age is not experience, your ability to master a thing is. Failures and mistakes are often repeated, not because one has not had enough encounters to learn from, but because one has failed to take that vital decision to master the situation.

 Keep the lesson fresh in mind. Out of mind they say is out of sight, it’s like mathematics it leaves you as soon as you leave it. Remember it’s the lessons learnt that you are keeping in mind and not the experience in its entirety. Bearing the whole experience in mind can reduce your momentum for success especially when you dwell on its failures. The more you think of success the more likely it is to achieve.