LISTEN ON
ANNOUNCEMENT:
If today’s episode really resonates with you, I’m teaching 3 free webinars in the next few weeks about How to be a Less Angry Mom. I would LOVE to see you there. Let’s see if we can make better decisions, that help us show up as our best selves- even on our craziest days! There are three dates to choose from, and I will be live on Zoom for each one of them. You can go to 3in30podcast.com/freeclass to sign up now. I can’t wait to dive deeper into this topic with you!
ALSO
My Self-Assured Motherhood program will be opening for enrollment next Monday, September 11th, and I can’t wait to get started with a new group of women! Enrollment for this nine-month long program only opens once per year, so NOW is the time if you have been feeling lost and burned out within your motherhood. You can learn more about the program by visiting Selfassuredmotherhood.com or by attending my free class.
***
The past few years, I have been on a quest to become a better decision maker–someone who trusts myself more fully and takes decisive action, knowing that no decision is a perfect decision. This hasn’t always come naturally to me: Decision-making use to feel paralyzing, and sometimes I would think about a decision and spin and overanalyze and weigh all of my options for literally weeks before I took any action. And honestly, sometimes I would just never decide, and therefore never take any action at all!
I am still a work in progress, but I have gotten so much better in the past several years at trusting myself to make a decision and move forward without overthinking it, and someone whose work I have learned so much from on this topic (and many other topics) is Kendra Adachi, two-time New York Times bestselling author of The Lazy Genius Way and The Lazy Genius Kitchen. Kendra’s podcast, The Lazy Genius Podcast, has over 23 million downloads and covers everything from cooking chicken to making friends. As a systems expert and professional permission-giver, Kendra helps others stop doing it all for the sake of doing what matters. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and three kids, and it’s an honor to have her on the show today to give us her takeaways on how to be calmer decision-makers.
***
3 Takeaways from Kendra Adachi on How to be a “Better” Decision Maker:
- Make it smaller. Of course we will be paralyzed with indecision if we believe that our choices have gigantic eternal ramifications for ourselves and the ones we love. If we can make our choices feel smaller by focusing on today and this season, instead of catastrophizing ten years down the road, we are more likely to find some decision-making momentum. I often challenge myself to just make a decision on the little things, because it’s good practice for the big things. As Kendra said in the episode: “Practice choosing and get comfortable choosing, no matter the decision….”
- Name what matters. When you verbalize what matters most to you in any given situation, you suddenly have a much clearer lens through which you can make decisions. Start by sitting down and writing out what could matter to you in the situation and then decide what matters most to you right now. That’s not to say the other factors don’t matter at all to you; they just might not matter as much as to you, and your decisions should be based on your highest priorities in this season. Remember, if this exercise of naming what matters most feels impossible to you because it all seems to matter, try going backwards by identifying what matters least to you, and go from there.
- Decide once. When possible, eliminate decision-fatigue by just choosing how you will always do something, until it no longer works for you. For example, you will always have tacos on Tuesdays. You will always buy a board game as a birthday gift for your children’s friends. You will never buy a dress if it does not have pockets (that is one of my personal Decide Onces). This takeaway will free you from the burden of rehashing a decision a million times and will significantly lighten your mental load. If you want to get started using this principle, start to notice where you have already “decided once” in your life, and then ask yourself, “Where else can I do that?” Get creative!
>>>Are these tips on how to be a better decision maker helpful? Share your ideas with me on how you’re “deciding once” with me, because I want to automate way more decisions in my life!? Tell us in the comments below.
***
Get in touch with our Guest!
- Instagram: @thelazygenius
- Website: thelazygeniuscollective.com/
- Podcast: The Lazy Genius Podcast
Mentioned in the Episode
- Free class: Come to my free Zoom class in September all about the mom-rage and what to do about it. You can reserve your seat at 3in30podcast.com/freeclass, and I can’t wait to dive even deeper into this topic with you!
- Book: The Lazy Genius Way
- Book: The Lazy Genius Kitchen
Sponsors
- BetterHelp: This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Use the code 3in30 to get 10% off your first month of online therapy!
- K12: Go to K12.com/3IN30 today to learn more and find a tuition-free K12-powered school near you.
- Green Chef: use code 603in30for 60% off plus free shipping
