Read carefully the passages given below and answer the questions that follow
Decision making is a very vital part of our lives. This is because what we are today is largely a result of the decisions we took in the past. Similarly, whatever happens tomorrow will be a result of the decisions we take in the present.
It is not possible to reverse the wrong decisions taken in the past but it is possible to train ourselves into becoming a good decision-maker for the future. If we don’t we’ll end up doing what we’ve always done and thus get what we’ve always got philosoper Walter Kaufman has called this Decidophobia.
All sorts of decisions big or small, relevant or irrelevant, conscious or unconscious punctuate our lives. Sometimes, we don’t even realise we are taking a decision. Those who avoid taking a decision leave everything to chance and float along life with a ‘what will be, will be attitude’.
To enhance our decision-making, we must, first of all, gather as much information as possible about the issue before we make our decision. We might be heading for a *** if our decisions are based on half-baked information.
If you have a set of guiding principles for your life, decision-making becomes a lot easier. For example, if you have value integrity and honesty and consider them to be of vital importance, you will never waver.
Sometimes decisions are very difficult to make especially when the odds seem to be against us. In this case, giving ourselves a little time to decide wouldn’t be a bad idea at all. Circumstances may change with time and then it may be easier to see which action is more preferable to the others.
Being clear about your goals can facilitate decision making of we know exactly where we want to be or what we want to do in the next five years or even ten, we will decide to undertake actions which will lead us to our goals. so outline your short and long term goals in ***** and white.
Action is a vital consequence of decision making. It is the necessary follow-up. Only when we act, will we get a feedback of whether our decision has been correct or not and then we can proceed in a more focused way. So, it is essential to move from the world of thought to the arena of action.
(a) What determines the course of our life?
(b) People suffering from Decidophobea are unable to shape their lives. Why?
(c) Choose the correct answer for the following statement :- The first step towards decision making would be to :-
(i) leave everything to chance.
(ii) gather maximum information
(iii) depend on other’* decisions
(iv) only talk it amongst our friends.
(d) What makes it easy to take decisions?
(e) Frame two questions based on the underlined part of the passage.
(f) How can we proceed in a focused way?
(g) Find words from the passage which mean the same as -
(i) to make possible or easier.
(ii) return of information about a product.
