It seems we all float in and out of periods of time in our lives in which making decisions is immanent. I happen to be going through one such time. Making a decision is exciting and can sometimes be stressful, but as a very good friend of mine once (and continues to say) said, “These are good problems to have!” Agreed. Making a decision and having the options that surround it is, indeed, a good problem to have. Yet, there remains the actual decision making…

It was recently suggested to me to use a scoring matrix to help guide my choices. Basically, you list the top ten things that are important to you in say… accepting a new job, looking for a new job, deciding where you want to live, what school you want to go to, who you want to date, who you want in your life in general! You get the picture.

I think it is really advantageous to make these lists before you are faced with the decision- that way your vision remains unbiased and you can always revert to that list when wondering about what you really want.

You make list of the top ten things that are most important to you for the corresponding category you are addressing (ie: job, school, living situation, mate…). This list becomes your point of reference. When a job, school, living situation or person comes along you can score them against your list. For each of the ten points you’ve previously deemed as most important, you rank your candidate in each point with a score between 1- 10. If by the end your potential suitor doesn’t score in the 80 or above percentile, you have clearly eliminated a choice that doesn’t live up to your standards or hopes.

It is that simple, and if you try to talk yourself into allowing a less than 80er into your life, chances are you will acknowledge their shortcomings later on and know that you already knew that from your scoring matrix… Just sayin’. So, good luck people. I hope the scoring matrix will help bring clarity to your decisions as I am employing it to do for mine.