Ever wonder how many decisions you make in a typical day?

You start the day by deciding whether to get up right away or hit the snooze button. You decide whether to boil an egg or have cornflakes for breakfast. You decide if you will do a thorough tooth brushing job or cut it short. You decide whether to walk the dog or just let him loose in the backyard. You decide what clothes to wear. You decide the order to put them on. You decide whether to read the New York Times or the local weekly paper back to front or front to back. You decide whether to straighten up or finish the crossword puzzle. You decide whether to pick up the dry cleaning before work or whether it is better to wait for the lunch hour. That’s just scratching the surface. And you haven’t even left your house yet.

These decisions typically get very little conscious thought. It is as though we are on autopilot. We just kind of do what we "feel like" doing, think we "have to do", or what we did yesterday and the day before.

And this is the way it has to be. We just don’t have the time to analyze every little decision.

But, if you stop to think about it, many of our bigger decisions are also on automatic pilot or made too quickly with limited information. And that can be a problem.

It has been said that the average person spends more time deciding where to go on his or her summer vacation than on choosing their career path. But how much quality time does anyone have these days even to truly investigating our summer vacation options? Everyone is busy. Very busy. Increasingly we seem too busy to think carefully before acting.

Even if we did have limitless time we don’t have the tools to create quality decisions. I don’t know about you, but there weren’t any courses on decision making at my grammar or high school. I guess the educators decided that it wasn’t important. And, I can’t help but wonder how much time, if any at all, they spent on that vital decision.

Maybe it is time to decide to start making better decisions.

If you would like to get your life off automatic pilot, there is something you can do. You can decide right now to make better decisions in critical areas of your life.

You might begin by asking yourself what critical areas do you have on automatic pilot, important areas where you have accepted that the way things are is the way things have to be. You may be surprised at what you see.

How to relate to your spouse, children, parents, inlaws? What about your career? Are you really happy living in the East Bay? Do you make the best use of your leisure time? Are you doing everything you can about your health?

There are plenty of books and articles on how to make good decisions. And if you are serious about living more consciously you will want to take a look at them. But, in the meantime, here is a good, simple template for making good decisions.

First. Identify the decision you are trying to make. People often go past the big questions and answer the small ones without realizing they have excluded other options. A high school student who asks "which college should I apply to?" assumes that it is a given that he or she must attend college. The big decision (whether to go to a four year college) has already been made with virtually no thought. Some young people who might be better served with some other kind of education don’t even consider the alternatives. Their families, teachers and peers expect it as the right thing to do. Changing the question will allow a whole new series of possibilities and considerations. Or how about "should I marry Mr/Ms. X this year?" This question assumes that the person has already decided that marriage is a desireable condition for them. Background decisions might include thoughts like "if I don’t get married now I never will" or "it’s likely no one better will come along" or "I can always get divorced if it doesn’t work out." Often these decisions are not conscious.They are like the operating program in a computer that works behind the scenes but really controls everything. It is always easier to do what is expected and accepted as the right thing to do. Making conscious quality decisions is hard work and often requires courage to ask the right question before you start.

Second. Get the facts. In business they call it "research." Before a large company makes a critical decision, they thoroughly investigate its risks and opportunities. This may include asking other people knowledgeable in the question, looking things up at the library or internet or getting some hands on experience. There is no reason you and I can’t do the same in our personal life.

Third. Develop a number of possible solutions through brainstorming (a fancy word for thinking). This is an important step. In our rush to make a decision and move on, we often settle on the first solution that looks like a fit. By coming up with a number of alternatives, you increase the likelihood that you will make the best possible decision. In this stage you may create possibilities to choose from that did not exist before the process.

Fourth. Observe how the decision works when implemented and take corrective action. Are there problem areas? Is the decision meeting expectations? Are there opportunities you may have missed? Risks?

It takes time to step back and make a decision in a methodical fashion. And time seems to be in increasingly short supply these days. But if spending a little more time reaching a decision saves you time spent on the wrong path, helps you avoid disaster or opens up new possibilities for satisfaction, isn’t it well worth it?

You decide.