Decision making begins with a willingness to submit your intentions to God's perfect will and humbly follow His direction and understanding the impact of consequences in your decision making! The daily decisions that you make today will determine what kind of impact you will make tomorrow. The key to making better decisions is to educate yourself, make adjustments necessary, let your decisions be based on a solid foundation and take proper precaution. This book can help you understand decision making process and help you develop in moving forward in your journey of life and also makes the principles in the Bible relevant to everyday living.

Managing Decision Making by Applying Biblical Perspective

By Damian Iwuala

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Dr. Damian Iwuala
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-4034-9

Contents

Introduction.........................................................................ixPart 1: The Impact of Decision Making................................................1Part 2: Nature of God................................................................19Part. 3: A Closer Walk with God......................................................35Part 4: Freedom from Fear............................................................49Part 5: Personal Accountability and Discipline.......................................65Part 6: A Whole New Mind.............................................................79Part 7: Living a Life of Balance.....................................................99Epilogue.............................................................................115Bibliography.........................................................................119About the Author.....................................................................121

Chapter One

Part 1: The Impact of Decision Making

Decision Making in Our Life

Decision making begins with a willingness to submit your intentions to God's perfect will and humbly follow His direction.

Everyday we are faced with all sorts of issues, choices, and decisions that affect our lives. Making decisions means making a judgment between two or more alternatives. Making decisions is not always easy, and different decisions have different impacts in our lives. All of us have made bad decisions at some point in our life. It is the decisions we made that have brought us to where we stand today.

We are generally driven by our likes and dislikes. We are always resistant to change and rarely monitor the impact of our decisions. We need to challenge the way in which we make decisions. The following raise questions on the impact of decision making:

1. How do you make decisions in your life? 2. Do you make decisions based on fear, anger, negative emotion, self-pity? 3. Is your decision something that you can take before God and ask Him to bless? 4. Is your decision something that can bring glory and honor to God?

To make right decision you have to feel good and have good self-esteem. We should implement an effective decision-making process instead of relying of feeling or intuition. Develop a good, constructive mind set and strategies that will enable you to see your situation from other perspectives and that will help to clearly understand the impact of any negative emotions. Emotions play an important role in the lives of humans, and influence our behavior, thoughts, decisions and interactions. The ability to regulate emotions is essential to both mental and physical well-being.

Our mind requires stimulation, and decisions keep the mind active and alert. Our ability to make decisions will be strongly affected by the person we learned that ability from. If our parents lacked good decision-making skills, it puts us at a disadvantage. Our ability to make good decisions will put you on the right track and will generate higher levels of fulfillment and success in life. The act of making constructive decisions and doing positive things for ourselves makes us feel good about ourselves.

A decision is something that you have the capability of changing and then understanding the impact of your decision's consequences. It does not take much strength to decide what to do, but it does require great strength to act on your decisions. Successful decision making is an interactive process and is at the heart of life. It is important to determine and identify your values, which will help you to set goals that reflect your priorities in life.

The decision-making process is centered on core communication processes involved in creating shared meaning. Every day we are confronted with making decisions about everything. The fact is that one of the major activities in life is that we are constantly making decisions, but we tend not to consider the process, rather just the result of the action. Some decisions we make are by our own choosing, but many other decisions are forced upon us.

The decision-making process includes:

1. Recognizing that a decision is necessary 2. Identify the set of feasible alternatives 3. Choosing the best alternatives 4. Recognizing consequences 5. Putting a decision into practice

Understanding the decision-making process will help you in your decisions, and it will have a huge impact on your life. In the decision-making process, be aware of your surroundings, process feedback from your environment, make adjustments necessary, and let your decisions be based on a solid foundation. Good and bad decisions in life help to mold and shape our future. It is important that you equip yourself and understand the implication of the decision you are making. Take proper precautions in decision making by considering the various options and potential consequences. When tackling any problem, research it thoroughly, get all the facts and take time to introspect. Clarify your important decisions and ask yourself on what basis did you arrive at these conclusions? Make decisions with a sense of responsibility.

Decision making is part of the responsibilities that we face in life. As you make good decisions, it relieves you from many responsibilities and problems in life, and wrong decisions only compound your problems. Many decisions we make are mental conclusions based on experience and knowledge as well as the nature of our attitude. Having clearer thinking about decision making will yield profound benefits to you. Make the decision concrete by reanalyzing over what you have decided. The higher we climb or advance on the ladder of life the more critical our decisions become, because they affect others. The decisions you make are directed toward your own happiness, and when you are surrounded by people who rely on you, every decision you make affects them as well. The problem is that too many people don't know what they want. The result is indecision. To enable yourself to make better decisions with a sense of responsibility, you must have a clear image in your mind of what you want. Visualization is the first step to bringing a dream to life. If you can see your goal in your mind, see yourself happy, successful, loving life and healthy, you can make it a reality. The key to changing your belief system is changing your thoughts.

Some people are in the habit of making poor decisions, and one bad decision leads to another due to their habit pattern. The best way to break a habit pattern is to first recognize that there is particular habit pattern we have and then earnestly desire to change it. Too often, we pay more attention to advancing our knowledge of other skills without realizing the importance and complexity of decision making. The key to making better decisions is to educate yourself and make an effort to learn as much as you can about the issue. By doing this, you will find the power within yourself to be decisive. You are the architect and building contractor of your future. Learn how to apply the discipline of kingdom living mind set and improve your decision making confidence to ensure the positive consequences out weigh the negative ones. Without constructive and effective decision-making skills and strategies, you will not fulfill your God-given potential in life.

You are...