Decision Coaching Online
In this guide to decision coaching online, I lead you through a step-by-step process that will help you make better decisions.
As an online life coach, I have helped hundreds of clients make the right decision using this exact process.
Let’s dive right into it.
#1 Define Your Decision
The first step I take with my online coaching clients is to help them identify their decision.
This is an imperative first step that will enable you to move forward with clarity and applies to all types of decisions.
The cost of not knowing where you are going is that it will lead you nowhere, so taking some time to reflect and define your decisions with the help of a coach will set you up well in your decision-making process.
#2 Get Different Perspectives
In my online coaching program, the next step in the decision-making process is to get different perspectives on how others might handle this decision.
Seeing it from different angles can provide insights that you may not have thought of yet.
This is also a great way of training your brain to look at the complete set of options available every time you make a decision.
This ensures you will always be content with the outcome, knowing you considered all the points of view.
What does your gut say?
Before you start to search for answers outside yourself, most coaches will ask you to look within.
We’re all familiar with the feeling of just knowing something.
It’s known as a “gut feeling”, and is your body’s way of communicating with you.
In my experience as an online coach, I have seen that the body’s intelligence is just as important as the brain’s.
Therefore, it is very important to learn to listen to the body.
A great way to do this is to meditate on your decisions; if you’re not sure how to meditate, there are many excellent online courses, such as this one, which can teach you.
Moreover, meditation is a great way of training your brain to make better decisions in the future.
What does your bravest friend say?
We all have one of those friends who breezes through life seemingly without fear.
But as a coach I know it’s not that they have no fear – it’s that they don’t allow their fears to influence how they live.
They also know that every decision comes at a cost – for in choosing one thing, they must renounce another.
Your bravest friend also knows that every decision can offer the opportunity for growth and development and that she’ll be able to live with the consequences of her decision.
Think about your bravest friend – how would she handle this decision?
What does your most cautious friend say?
We all have one of those cautious friends, too, and it’s a good idea to take some inspiration from their decision-making process.
Like your brave friend, your cautious friend knows that decisions come at a cost, so he will take the time to evaluate all the possible risks before making decisions.
Your cautious friend will also probably gather as much information as he can access, helping to see the complete picture. Think about how he would handle your situation.
Death perspective: imagine looking back at this decision from your death bed
No one likes to think about dying, but stepping into the shoes (or bed) of your future self can program your brain to put your decisions into perspective.
One of the top five regrets of people on their deathbeds is “I wish I had let myself be happier.”
This is another great way to program your brain to see different perspectives since what seems important in the short term may not, in fact, be the key to longer-term happiness.
In my work as an online coach, I support my clients in the development of these skills, training them to access and question their core beliefs in order to gain new insights.
What does your enemy say?
It may seem strange at first, but looking at your decision from the perspective of your enemy can give you key insights into the potential negative outcomes of your decisions.
Since our enemies generally wish the worst for us, looking at it this way can help you evaluate whether you can handle the consequences.
As a professional online coach, I have seen how these techniques can help you gain fresh insights, whilst training you to apply them to your future decisions.
This gives you the confidence to make decisions, knowing you can live with the consequences.
#3 Clarify the Criteria – Determine What Matters
In my online coaching program, the next step is the development of a complete set of criteria for the outcome of the decision.
For example, in business decisions cost, efficiency, and time may be important factors.
For life decisions, the criteria may include your personal values and lifestyle.
And career decisions may be based on criteria including your skills and interests, passion, and earning potential.
Most coaches can help you with the development of your own set of criteria.
#4 Exploring Options – Look for More and Better Solutions
When faced with decisions, your brain tends to think in a binary way – “I must choose between this or that.”
What you don’t tend to think about, is whether the two options can be combined in some way, to create a different, third outcome.
Most coaches encourage their clients to take this problem-solving approach to making decisions.
A good coach will also ask you if there are any other options that you haven’t thought about yet.
While you may think you only have two or three possible choices, there could be four, or five, or even more outcomes that haven’t occurred to you!
#5 Evaluating Options
Now that you have a complete overview of your options, you’re ready to evaluate them against the criteria you set out in step #3.
You may want to weight some of the criteria according to their importance, for example, the cost may be more important to you than time, in which case you would score it accordingly.
When I coach my online clients, I use different methods to help them evaluate their options; this important step helps ensure that they are content with the final outcomes.
#6 Our Deepest Fear and How to Deal With It
In my work as an online decisions coach, I see a recurring pattern in my clients when they are faced with making big decisions.
The “person” they are most afraid of is their own inner critic.
I’m sure you’re familiar with it – that voice inside your head that tells you you’re not capable, not good enough, or not worthy.
We all have to live with our inner critic, and most coaches agree that the best solution is to make a deal upfront with your inner critic.
The deal is: no matter what the outcome, you won’t punish yourself!
#7 Find a Winner
When I follow the steps above with my online coaching clients, usually an obvious answer emerges.
If you follow this process and are still not sure, working with a coach can help you cut through the confusion, allowing you to live with peace of mind knowing you handled the decision the best you could.
#8 There Is No Such Thing As a Wrong Decision
A life coach friend once told me that for her there is no such thing as a wrong decision, and explained her approach to making decisions.
Whenever you make a decision, you always decide with your best intention and with all the information you have access to at this moment in your life.
Therefore, your decision cannot be wrong.
Sure, maybe when you look back 10 years from now, you will see it differently.
But the wisdom you will have gained will come as a result of the decision you made.
To this day, I still find this perspective very helpful and share it with my life coaching clients.
Unfortunately, she passed away soon after she shared this with me.
But her wisdom lives on… 😊
Thanks for stopping by and reading my guide. Share this piece with a friend to help them too!
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