Decision Fatigue is Killing Your Business—Here’s How to Fix It

Hello and welcome to another episode of Unleashing Brilliance.

It's so great to have you here again today.

So today I don't want to talk about is a decision fatigue, you know, tell me

have you ever hit That moment where your brain just flat out refuses to function.

You know, you're staring at your screen You might be caught in

this endless, eternal battle.

Should I launch this offer?

Should I raise my prices?

Is it time to fire that client?

Do I post this on LinkedIn or Instagram?

Should I eat chocolate or salad?

And suddenly boom!

Paralysis kicks in.

Nothing happens.

You stare, you scroll, you maybe eat the salad and the chocolate because

it's all about balance, right?

And then before you know it, the day has gone.

And my friend, you've been hit if that's the case with a

serious case of decision fatigue.

If this sounds familiar, you're not alone.

Decision fatigue is probably one of the sneakiest, most insidious

productivity killers in business.

It drains our energy, it feeds our overthinking, and worst

of all, it keeps us stuck.

But today I want to share a little bit of rebel magician thinking with you,

because What if we didn't have to make every decision feel like life or death?

What if we treated decision making like an experiment?

Yep, let's put those science lab goggles on because today I want to turn our

decision making process into a series of low risk, high learning experience.

This is something that I do in my own business.

This is something that I share with my clients and I want to share it with you

today because I promise that This one shift will change everything for you.

Let's talk about the truth about decision fatigue for a

second, because here's the thing.

As business owners, as leaders, as entrepreneurs, there's no

doubt that We are bombarded with choices every single day.

Every single day.

And while the world tells us to be decisive and to be confident, It forgets

to mention that our brains have a finite amount of decision making power each day.

Decision making is a bit like your phone battery.

You know, by lunchtime you've already made probably 800 micro decisions.

What to wear, which emails to answer first, where to file things, how many

times to reheat that same cup of coffee.

Or is that just me?

And so by the time that big decision rolls in your brain is already running

on very little percentage points.

And that is why instead of taking bold action, we default into overthinking.

We start second guessing ourselves.

we get caught in that what if spiral.

What if I made the wrong choice?

What if this fails?

What if I look stupid?

And because we're exhausted with the decision making, we

put that decision back to later.

And you know what?

Later just never comes.

So how do you get out of this crazy, crazy decision fatigue loop?

I reckon the answer is in the power of experiment.

And this is, this is what I do in my own business, instead of making decisions,

I think of my decisions as experiments.

instead of obsessing over making the perfect decision in your own business.

What if you treated every single choice as an experiment?

I think this is game changing.

It's been game changing for me because instead of thinking,

what if I make the wrong choice?

It's about flipping that thinking and instead starting to think, What if I

just test this and just see what happens?

Science does this all the time, right?

Scientists don't just sit around debating whether their hypothesis

is a hundred percent correct before they start experimenting.

No, they create a series of small tests and experiments.

They gather data and they adjust as they go.

And that is exactly how I think we need to approach decision

making in our own businesses.

Let me show you how I use this in my own business.

I want to give you a real life example where last year.

I launched a VIP strategy weekend.

Had I done them before?

No.

Was I sure that they'd work?

Mmm, not entirely.

But instead of spending six months debating whether I should do them,

I thought, alright, let's test it.

I'm going to put it out there.

I want to set a time frame.

Let's test if I can sell this in the next three months.

I want to set a price on it.

Let's test if people will pay this amount of money to spend time with

me, working through their businesses.

And guess what?

Some of the weekends were an absolute hit.

Some didn't sell out.

But every single thing that I did, every single thing experiment that I did gave

me invaluable insight and the key lesson here is that every single experiment,

win or fail, gives you the next step.

And the best part, because I wasn't attached to the outcome, I didn't

waste months thinking about it.

I took action.

I collected real world data and then I adjusted and I refined.

So I want to give you four ways today on this podcast.

Think about of how you can make decisions easier without

actually melting your brain.

So, how do you put this into action?

Here's the four simple steps that I use.

Step number one is about taking the pressure off.

Instead of, what if I get this wrong?

I want you to think about shifting it to,

What if I just test it and see what happens?

Because not every decision needs to be permanent.

Think of it, as I've shown in my example, as a prototype, not a final product.

The second thing is set a timeline.

Give yourself a deadline.

Whether it's testing a new pricing model for 30 days, trialing a marketing strategy

for a quarter, or putting something out to market to see if you can sell it, set

a time frame, commit to a time frame.

And That deadline will stop you from endless overthinking.

And by the time you hit that deadline, you can decide whether to

move forward or net or to cancel it.

And that takes me onto my third step.

Measure what matters.

Define success before you begin.

So for example, if you're testing a lead generation strategy, what is

the definition of success in that?

Is it about getting more leads?

Is it about a better quality leads process or attracting more better quality leads?

Is it actually about less stress in the process?

Decide what you are measuring because the clarity will stop any confusion around

what the definition of your success is.

It's something I do all the time with my clients when they start an experiment and

they instantly jump to that's not worked.

And then I'll say to them, well, let's look at the data.

And actually their definition of what hasn't worked.

isn't necessarily reflected because it's the point in the

experiment that hasn't worked.

It's attracted leads in.

It's got people signing up to webinars, for example, but they've

not necessarily turned up or they've not necessarily converted into sales.

But there's still success there.

The X amount of people that signed up is the success.

The next part of the experiment, then, is how do I turn them

from signing up to turning up?

How do I turn them from signing up to converting?

And this brings me to that final one, number four is about detaching from the

outcome, because not every experiment will work, and I think that's okay.

The goal isn't about perfection, it's about learning.

It's about adapting, it's about moving forward.

So here's my challenge to you for this week.

What's one decision that you might have been overthinking for way too long?

That one thing that you've been circulating back to, you've been

thinking through, you've probably got option A, option B, option C, but you

haven't actually moved forward on.

I want you to think about turning that into an experiment.

I want you to set a deadline, a timeline when you're going

to actually get started by.

I want you to think about how you can define success.

I then want you to test it and to see what happens.

And when you do, let me know, let me know what was the outcome of your experiments.

I seriously love hearing about your wins, your lessons.

I want to hear about even some of those, you know, Oh my God, those

face palm moments, share them with me on LinkedIn via Instagram, or send

me a DM because I'd love to know.

And better yet, why don't you this episode, post it

to your stories and tag me.

Let's spread the message far and wide because the more we embrace the power

of experimentation, the less we let fear and indecision run the show.

So go on, get out there, please test something this week and I will

be back with another episode of Unleashing Brilliance next week.