High School Study Skills

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Self Management

Principles of Decision Making

Each decision we make has risks associated with it.  Because of these risks, making decisions is often very difficult.  As you make decisions, keep in mind four basic principles:

1. Never risk more than you can afford to give.

2. Never risk more than you have.

3. Never risk more than you can get in return.

4. Follow you intuition.
   

Principle 1. 
Never risking more than you can afford to give refers to more than just financial ventures.  Never take any risk that demands more of yourself or your resources than you are willing and able to give.  You alone know what you can afford -- in terms of time, energy, emotions, and so on.  Think about the decisions you make when you choose your courses at registration.  You should not enroll in courses that demand a lot of outside class work if you are not willing to put the time and effort into them outside school.

Principle 2.
The second principle implies that you are limited in resources.  You do not have an unlimited supply of energy, time, space, or money, and you cannot risk more of these resources than  you possess.  Any decision uses one or more of these resources, but no action should deplete all your resources in any given area.

Principle 3.
This principle suggests that you view each decision in terms of what it will produce for you.  Take a risk only when  you can profit from it.

Principle 4.  This principle simply means that you should feel good about your decision.  No one can make decisions for you.  As a teenager, you may feel that your parents have forced you to make certain decisions.  This is almost never true.  Even when you allow another person to decide for you, you are still making a decision -- the decision to make the choices that another person wants you to make.

And finally, a decision is a commitment and it should be one you are willing to trust and abide by.  Good decisions are those that open up more possibilities for future choices. 

Problem solving and decision making model from St. Thomas University

Decision making worksheet

A model for ethical decision making