Why can't you make a decision? Decision making: brief instructions. The secret of successful people

When people share the worst decisions they have made in their lives, they often cite the fact that the choice was made in a fit of instinctive emotions: passion, fear, greed.

Our life would be completely different if Ctrl+Z operated in life, which would cancel decisions made.

But we are not slaves to our mood. Instinctive emotions tend to dull or disappear altogether. Therefore, folk wisdom recommends that when you need to make an important decision, it is better to go to bed. Good advice, by the way. It wouldn't hurt to take note! Although for many decisions, sleep alone is not enough. A special strategy is needed.

One of the effective tools that we would like to offer you is strategy for success at work and in life from Susie Welch(Suzy Welch) - former editor-in-chief of the Harvard Business Review, popular author, television commentator and journalist. It is called 10/10/10 and involves making decisions through the prism of three different time frames:

• How will you feel about it 10 minutes later?
• How will you feel about this decision 10 months from now?
• What will your reaction be to this in 10 years?

By focusing our attention on these deadlines, we distance ourselves some distance from the problem of making an important decision.

Now let's look at the effect of this rule using an example.

Situation: Veronica has a boyfriend, Kirill. They have been dating for 9 months, but their relationship can hardly be called ideal. Veronica claims that Kirill is a wonderful person, and in many ways he is exactly what she has been looking for throughout her life. However, she is very worried that their relationship is not moving forward. She is 30, she wants a family and... She doesn’t have an endless amount of time to develop her relationship with Kirill, who is approaching 40. During these 9 months, she never met Kirill’s daughter from her first marriage, and the cherished “I love you” was never heard in their couple from either side.

The divorce from my wife was terrible. After this, Kirill decided to avoid serious relationships. Moreover, he keeps his daughter out of his personal life. Veronica understands that he is hurt, but she is also offended that such an important part of her loved one’s life is closed to her.

Veronica knows that Kirill does not like to rush into making decisions. But should she then take the step herself and say “I love you” first?

The girl was advised to use the 10/10/10 rule, and this is what came out of it. Veronica was asked to imagine that right now she had to decide whether she would confess her love to Kirill over the weekend or not.

Question 1: How will you feel about this decision 10 minutes later?

Answer:“I think I would be worried, but at the same time proud of myself for taking a risk and saying it first.”

Question 2: How would you feel about your decision if 10 months had passed?

Answer:“I don’t think I’ll regret it 10 months from now. No, I will not. I sincerely want everything to work out. Those who don’t take risks don’t drink champagne!”

Question 3: How will you feel about your decision 10 years later?

Answer:“No matter how Kirill reacts, in 10 years the decision to confess your love first is unlikely to matter. By this time, either we will be happy together, or I will be in a relationship with someone else."

Note that the 10/10/10 rule works! As a result we have quite a simple solution:

Veronica must take the lead. She will be proud of herself if she does this, and sincerely believes that she will not regret what she did, even if nothing works out with Kirill in the end. But without consciously analyzing the situation according to the 10/10/10 rule, making an important decision seemed extremely difficult to her. Short-term emotions—fear, nervousness, and fear of rejection—were distracting and limiting factors.

What happened to Veronica after that, you are probably wondering. She still said “I love you” first. In addition, she tried to do everything to change the situation and stop feeling in limbo. Kirill did not confess his love to her. But progress was evident: he became closer to Veronica. The girl believes that he loves her, that he just needs a little more time to overcome his own and admit that the feelings are reciprocated. In her opinion, the chances that they will be together reach 80%.

Eventually

The 10/10/10 rule helps you win the emotional game. The feelings that you are experiencing now, at this moment, seem intense and sharp, and the future, on the contrary, is vague. Therefore, emotions experienced in the present are always in the foreground.

The 10/10/10 strategy forces you to change your perspective: consider a moment in the future (for example, in 10 months) from the same point that you look at in the present.

This technique puts your short-term emotions into perspective. This is not to say that you should ignore them. Often they even help you get what you want in a given situation. But you shouldn't let your emotions get the better of you.

It is necessary to remember the contrast of emotions not only in life, but also at work. For example, if you deliberately avoid having a serious conversation with your boss, you are allowing your emotions to get the better of you. If you imagine the possibility of having a conversation, then after 10 minutes you will be just as nervous, but after 10 months, will you be glad that you decided to have this conversation? Will you breathe a sigh of relief? Or will you feel proud?

What if you want to reward the work of an excellent employee and are going to offer him a promotion: will you doubt the correctness of your decision after 10 minutes, will you regret what you did 10 months later (what if other employees feel left out), and will it Does the promotion make any difference to your business 10 years from now?

As you can see, short-term emotions are not always harmful. The 10/10/10 rule suggests that looking at emotions in the long term is not the only correct way. It only proves that the short-term feelings you experience cannot be at the head of the table when you make important and responsible decisions.

There comes a time in every person's life when they need to make a difficult decision. How to make the right decision when in doubt? Which direction of study should I choose? The partner I am with now will not disappoint me in the future, am I in love with him for life? Should I accept the offer or can I find a more interesting job? These are just some of the dilemmas that most of us face.

The choice of whether to buy apples or pears seems insignificant compared to decisions whose consequences can affect a lifetime. How can you be sure that you are making the right decisions? How to avoid internal dissonance, the impression that the option you refused could be better than the one you chose? How to make difficult decisions?

Decision making methods

There are mainly two decision-making strategies used - heuristics and algorithms. Thinking algorithmically, a person carefully studies and analyzes, comparing the pros and cons of a particular option. Heuristics save us time because they appeal to emotions, intuition, preferences, and internal beliefs, without “calculation.”

It seems that when faced with a difficult choice, it is wiser to think through everything carefully several times before making a final decision. Meanwhile, people are very often guided by their hearts rather than their minds - even when making decisions that have an impact on their entire lives (for example, when choosing a life partner). How to understand what is best for us in a given situation?

Depending on the rank of the problem, a person usually uses from 1 to 3 decision-making strategies. What methods are used when making life choices?

1. Getting information from others

When you don’t know what to decide, you often use the support of loved ones, friends, and family. You are consulting, looking for additional information. If you need to make a difficult decision, you should consult with others and ask what they would do in a similar situation. Brainstorming and exchanging opinions with others helps you look at a problem from a new perspective.

2. Postponing the decision over time

If no one and nothing helps, do not rush into making a choice, give yourself time. You may temporarily not feel strong enough to make decisions that could affect your entire life. Postponing a decision until later may be a good idea, since during this time new facts may be discovered that will help you make a choice. But it is important not to put it off indefinitely; in the end, you need to make a decision.

3. Eliminating the worst options

When you have several different options and don't know which one to choose, make a choice by eliminating what seems the worst and least interesting. At the end of such elimination, a better alternative will remain.

4. Choosing the least evil

The choice is not always between good-better or good-worse: you have to choose between two not the most attractive options. How do you choose between two equally unpleasant alternatives?

You need to choose what has fewer potentially negative consequences and come to terms with the decision. There are things we simply cannot influence. Therefore, sometimes it is easier to accept the need to make a decision with bad consequences than to accept such a choice.

5. Analyze before you choose

This is a strategy related to algorithmic thinking. Consider the pros and cons of each alternative and choose the one that has more positive consequences. In other words, a balance is drawn up of the profits and losses associated with choosing one option and rejecting another. However, such a cold calculation is not always possible, because sometimes emotions take precedence over reason.

6. Act on the spur of the moment

Sometimes there is neither the time nor the opportunity to consider the proposals received for a long time. Then you need to make a decision spontaneously, right away, in the heat of the moment. In this case, it is better to trust your instinct, your inner voice. Not always, guided by emotions, we act rashly. In hindsight, it turns out to be the right decision, so trust yourself and your intuition.

7. Descartes square

One of the most effective and simple ways to make a difficult decision. You are encouraged to analyze any situation or problem from different perspectives. To make the right decision, answer four questions by looking at the picture below.

Be careful when answering the fourth question because your brain will try to ignore the double negative and try to answer like the first question. Don't let this happen!

Why is this method so effective? When you are in a situation that requires you to make a difficult decision, you often get stuck at the first point - what will happen if this happens? However, Descartes' square allows us to look at the problem from a multifaceted perspective and make a carefully thought-out and informed choice.

8. PMI method

How to effectively make difficult decisions? You can use Edward de Bono's method - the PMI method. This abbreviation is a derivative of the English words (plus, minus, interesting). The method is very simple. It is based on the fact that before making a decision, it is comprehensively assessed. A table is drawn on a piece of paper with three columns (pros, cons, interesting), and in each column the arguments for and against are indicated. The “interesting” column records everything that is neither good nor bad, but is still related to decision making.

Below is an example. Decision: should I rent an apartment on the outskirts with a friend?

When this table is drawn up, each argument is scored in accordance with the direction (arguments for are indicated by a plus, against - by a minus). For example, for some, more space is more important than pleasant company. At the end, the value of all arguments is summed up and it is determined whether the balance will be positive or negative.

The PMI method cannot be called innovative; it is not fundamentally different from the way we make decisions in everyday life. He seems to be assessing the strengths and weaknesses of a given choice. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most of us, when making a decision, actually make it for ourselves from the very beginning and then select arguments that would justify our choice. Even if it turns out that the decision we made has 3 more minuses, we will still choose it. People are actually not very rational, they are guided more by personal preferences, taste, etc. The pros and cons on a piece of paper will allow for an accurate analysis, at least with a partial shutdown of emotions.

People are very often afraid of the consequences of their choices and do not like to make decisions. They would willingly shift responsibility for their lives to other people. Unfortunately, if we want to be happy, we must learn to decide our own issues and bear the burden of life's choices. There is no guarantee that others would have done it better for us. We'll never know whether the options we ignore are better than the ones we chose, so don't cry over spilled milk and constantly lament the merits of rejected alternatives. Constantly ongoing dissonance kills us morally.

Every day we have to face the need to make all kinds of decisions. From simple to incredibly complex and important: brush or not brush your teeth, drink tea or coffee, start your own business or stay in a hired job, get a divorce or save your marriage. It remains to be seen which one is more difficult. Kidding. But it would really be worth understanding what a decision actually is, what they are, what is needed to make important decisions, and what to do with what has already been made. First things first.

What is an important decision?

So what is a solution anyway? I couldn’t find a more or less intelligible and understandable definition on the Internet, so I’ll try to give my own.

A decision is, first of all, a set of thoughts, a set of ideas, concepts, a final understanding of a question or problem, the result that we get in the decision-making process.

In other words, what remains with us in the bottom line, which gives us a feeling of completion and confidence, an understanding of further actions.

Although not always. It is worth noting that sometimes, having made a decision, we continue to doubt its correctness. This can happen for several reasons.

• We initially take it as an axiom that there can only be one correct or ideal solution.
• Because the decision we made was in conflict with our values.
• We were in a hurry and in the light of new facts, our decision no longer looks so convincing.

What are the solutions?

According to the degree of influence on our lives, I would divide them into two categories: Ordinary and Daring.

Regular- these are decisions that do not carry any challenge either externally (for other people) or internally (for ourselves). This does not mean that these decisions are not important or that they are easy to make, it is just that we do not put much meaning into them, they do not mean anything to us, but, as always, we want to make the right choice.

For example, a girl decides what color blouse is better to buy or a couple decides whether to get a pet.

Daring- these are decisions concerning what is truly important to us in life; such decisions, as a rule, are ambitious and challenging. It doesn't matter whether this challenge is directed at yourself, your partner, your boss or society. Bold decisions carry a special message, have deep meaning for us and can have an impact on our lives as a whole.

For example, an employee decides whether to open his own business, a couple decides to adopt a child, an elderly man, after two unsuccessful marriages, decides whether to try again.

What makes our decision bold is the meaning we put into it and how important it is for us to accept and implement it. How far can it take us beyond our comfort zone, how much will it affect our lives, and maybe even affect someone else's?

Decision-making.

Decision making is the process of thinking about possible options for the development of events and moving from thoughts about possible, desired or expected actions to real and specific actions. In the decision-making process, we think about what we would like, calculate possible options, and make assumptions about the possible result.

The decision made is characterized by the commission of a specific action.

For example, when deciding to drink a cup of tea or coffee in the morning, a specific action that completes the process of transition from “I would probably like some tea today” or “The best decision for me today would be a cup of aromatic and healthy tea” would be throwing the leaves into the cup and pouring them boiling water

Subtle nuances in making important decisions.

Change is inevitable. Whether we like it or not.

Yes, most people don't like change, even if it's positive. This is one of the protective properties of our brain. But, at the same time, its biggest trap.

It seems to us that, without making an important decision, we leave everything as it is, as before and without changes. Even by partially giving up our right to make important decisions in our lives, we are giving up part of life itself, allowing it to happen to us.

Making an ordinary decision can be difficult, and making an important decision can be even more difficult. We try to predict possible losses and gains, and evaluate options. We turn to ourselves, to family and friends for advice, or we simply think during long evenings. We look to the future with anxiety and hope. After all, our future often depends on whether we make a decision or not, will we consider it correct after many years, will it bring happiness, joy and success?

The truth is that when we don’t make a decision, we say “no” to it, but at the same time, we say “yes” to something else. This rule applies in any situation, when making absolutely any ordinary or daring decision. Even when you think: “I won’t make this decision now,” you already make a decision postpone its adoption

For example:

• when choosing whether to drink tea or coffee, we say “yes” to tea and “no” to coffee;
• By deciding to leave a job we hate and do what we love, we say “yes” to our courage and adventure, and “no” to the prospect of remaining mediocre;
• by continuing to eat junk food, we say “yes” to diseases, a loose body and say “no” to health, energy, vitality;
• When deciding to arrange a personal life in adulthood, we say “yes” to love and happiness in our lives, and “no” to loneliness and self-pity;
• By deciding not to trust the world, we say “yes” to suspicion, loneliness and anxiety, and “no” to happiness, love, support.

Implementation of the solution

The next stage after making a decision is the implementation of an important decision.

If making a simple decision does not require anything from us except determination, then an important and daring decision requires new actions, actions and new thinking from us. And this, in turn, involves significantly moving beyond our comfort zone.

Even after making an important decision in life, we don’t know what exactly to do next, how exactly to do it, where to start, how exactly we need to change our thinking. And all this makes our brain panic, gives rise to doubts that we will be able to independently implement our daring decision, we are afraid that we will not cope and will let ourselves, the team, our family down.

Yes, the path of realization is hidden from us, we do not see it entirely. All we see is the beginning of the path and its end point, well, sometimes we also see separate fragments that are not connected to each other. But in fact, there is not a single person on earth who would see completely, clearly and clearly the entire path to implementing his decision. This simply doesn't happen.

If we have enough experience, all we can do is guess with high probability how events will develop, where our success curve will turn, where a boulder will lie, where an impassable forest, and where a robber will lie in wait. But until we reach the obstacle, we will not know how insurmountable it is. Perhaps there is a secret hidden in it that needs to be unraveled. Or we will suddenly meet a guide who can help us quickly unravel all the secrets.

When there is not enough experience, there are doubts, fears, uncertainty, then the bold decision will be to start gaining this experience, to face your fears, to gain confidence through specific actions and deeds.

Changes still occur and will continue to occur in our lives. We can either accept this fact and begin to influence our lives on our own, consciously making all the important decisions in life, and implementing them no matter how daring and ambitious they may seem. Or let life happen to us.

What should you do if you are a leader and you are faced with a difficult choice? Remember, as in a fairy tale: execution cannot be pardoned, dismissal cannot be left, and it is unclear where to put a comma. In this article we will talk about several ways to make the right decision. This will help not only businessmen, but also ordinary people who find themselves in a difficult situation.

If you are trapped

Usually, making a difficult decision is necessary in a difficult life situation. Stress affects a person in different ways: some withdraw into themselves, some worry and don’t sleep at night, some become hysterical and take it out on loved ones. One thing remains unchanged: a person seems to fall into the trap of his own psyche; he is often unable to make a choice on his own and acts under the influence of emotions or his close environment. Time shows that impulsive and ill-considered decisions are ineffective and can ruin your business, your career, your relationships, in the end. Remember: all serious decisions are made with a cool head. Therefore, before you put into practice the methods described below, do this: turn off your heart and turn on your head. We'll show you how.

There are several ways to pacify emotions:

• short term - breathe correctly. Take 10 deep, slow breaths - this will help you calm down;
• medium-term - imagine that your friend finds himself in such a situation and asks you for advice. What will you tell him? Surely throw away all emotions and try to look at the situation detachedly, objectively. So try it;
• long-term - take a time out. Just let the situation go for a while, do other things, and come back to it after a week or month. This way you will kill two birds with one stone: firstly, you will cut off impulsive decisions and will not cut from the shoulder. And secondly, the right decision will ripen in your head like a ripe fruit - you just need to give it time.

Now that emotions no longer influence your choices, let's talk about eight reliable methods for making decisions.

1. Pros and cons method

Use the good old method: take a sheet of paper and a pen, draw the sheet in half. In the left column write all the advantages of the chosen solution, in the right column - respectively, the disadvantages. Don't limit yourself to just a few items: there should be 15-20 items on the list. Then calculate what will be more. Profit!

The essence of the methoda: even if you endlessly scroll through the pros and cons in your head, you are unlikely to see the full picture. Psychologists advise making written lists: this helps to organize the accumulated information, visually see the relationship between pros and cons, and draw a conclusion based on pure mathematics. Why not?

2. Create habits

This method is suitable if it is difficult for you to make a choice in everyday matters. For example, to increase the salary of a new employee, or if it’s not worth it yet, put it on the website or another company. What to eat for dinner, in the end, French fries or fish with vegetables. A difficult decision, of course, but still not a matter of life and death. In this case, it is useful to consciously create habits for yourself and follow them in the future. For example, introduce an iron rule: increase employee salaries only after six months of working in your company. Buying office supplies exclusively from Skrepka is cheaper. Eating light and healthy dishes for dinner will soon thank you. Well, with the call back you get it, yes.

The essence of the method: following habits, you will make simple decisions automatically, saving yourself from unnecessary thoughts, without wasting precious time on nonsense. But then, when you need to make a truly responsible and important choice, you will be fully armed.

3. “If-then” method

This method is suitable for resolving current problems in business, team, and personal life. For example, your employee speaks impolitely to customers and does not respond to comments. Question: Should I fire him immediately or try to re-educate him? Try using the “if-then” technique. Tell yourself: if he again mistreats a client, you will deprive him of his bonus. If the incident happens again, fire me.

The essence of the method:as in the first case, this is the creation of conditional boundaries within which you will act. The burden will immediately be lifted from the soul, and life will become much easier. And most importantly, you don’t have to waste time thinking and thinking about the fate of a careless employee.

It was invented by the famous American journalist Susie Welch. The rule is: before you make a difficult decision, stop and answer three questions:

• what will you think about it 10 minutes later;
• How will you feel about your choice in 10 months;
• What will you say in 10 years?

Let's give an example. Let's take a young man who works as a manager, doesn't like his job, but puts up with it because he needs money. He dreams of quitting his job, taking out a loan and opening his own business - a small pub, but at the same time he is desperately afraid of going broke and losing everything he has. In general, a classic case when a bird in the hand is preferred to a pie in the sky.

It’s difficult for our hero to take the first step - quit his hated job. Let's say he does this. In ten minutes he is unlikely to have time to regret his decision. In 10 months, he will already have time to rent the premises, equip the pub and receive clients. And if it doesn’t work out - he’ll find a job as a manager anyway - so what’s there to regret? Well, in 10 years, this choice is unlikely to have any significance at all: either the business will continue, or our hero will work in another place - one of two things. It turns out that if you follow the 10/10/10 rule, making a decision no longer becomes such a difficult task, because a person clearly understands what awaits him in the future.

The essence of the method: when making a difficult decision, we are usually overwhelmed by emotions: fear, anxiety, or vice versa, joy and excitement. A person feels it right here and now; feelings obscure the prospects for the future. Remember, as in Yesenin: “You can’t see a face face to face, a big one is seen at a distance.” As long as the future seems cloudy and vague, the choice of solution will be postponed again and again. By making concrete plans, presenting his emotions in detail, a person rationalizes the problem and stops being afraid of the unknown - because it becomes simple and understandable.

Read also: Three real stories.

5. Solve within 15 minutes

Paradoxical as it may seem, the most important, strategic decisions should be made in 15 minutes. A familiar situation: a company has a serious problem that requires immediate action, but the point is that no one knows the right solution. For example, competitors have done something nasty, and it is not clear what to do: respond in kind or get out of the situation with dignity. Or the crisis has hit your company, and you are confused: to move to a less prestigious place or to lay off a dozen employees. How can you make the right choice, and is there even one? And you begin to procrastinate, unable to make a decision, in the hope that everything will resolve itself.

If you don’t know which solution is correct, just imagine that there is no correct answer to this life problem. Give yourself 15 minutes and make any, absolutely any, decision. Yes, at first glance this may seem crazy. What about planning, and what about testing and verifying solutions? Ok, ok, if you can quickly and with a minimum of investment check the correctness of the solution, check it. If this requires months of time and millions of rubles, it is better to abandon this idea and immediately record the time.

The essence of the method: Needless to say, if you waste time, nothing gets solved: crises don’t go away, rental prices don’t go down, and competitors become even sharper. One unmade decision leads to others, the business sags and becomes ineffective. As they say, it is better to do than to regret, than not to do and regret.

6. Don't limit yourself to narrow boundaries

The same thing we wrote about at the beginning. Execute or pardon, buy a car or not, expand or wait for better times. One of two things, hit or miss, oh, it was not! But who said that a problem has only two solutions? Get out of the narrow framework, try to look at the situation more broadly. It is not necessary to organize a large-scale expansion of production - it is enough to launch a couple of new positions. Instead of an expensive car, you can purchase a more modest option, and apply disciplinary measures to the employee who committed the crime for the first time.

The essence of the method: when there are only two solution options, there is a greater chance of choosing the right decision, and many deliberately simplify their lives by dividing the situation into yes and no, black and white. But life is much more diverse: don’t be afraid to look it in the eye and accept all possible options. The solution may be a compromise, a rejection of both extremes in favor of a third, completely unexpected solution, or a successful combination of two options. This often happens when the owner of a small business cannot decide what to do: sit on the phone, deliver orders, or engage only in management activities. Start combining - and then you will see what works best. This will be the optimal solution to the problem.

Throughout our lives, we repeatedly have to make various decisions. And it often happens that we hesitate: should we do this or that way?

Or we don’t even understand what to do... What to do in such cases? How to behave so as not to regret what you did later? In fact, there are many ways that will help you.

Method one. Reasoning.

It is suitable for people who think rationally and are used to reasoning with.

Try to calculate the consequences of this or that action. It's best to write down all the pros and cons on a piece of paper to make it clearer. Let's say you've been offered a new job, but you're unsure whether to accept or not. Take a sheet of paper, divide it into two halves and on one half write down all the advantages of the proposed position, for example, “high salary”, “growth prospects”, “social package”, on the second - negative factors - “work far from home”, “irregular schedule” , “little information about this company”, etc.

Look at both halves of the sheet and count how many pros and cons you have. Now highlight what is your priority. After all, let’s assume that salary and career can completely compensate for some inconveniences. And it also happens that money and career are not the main thing for you, but you want to return home early and spend the weekend with your family. This method will simply help you visually put everything into categories, and this will make it easier to finally make a decision.

Method two. Intuition.

Suitable for people with an intuitive type of thinking. Listen to what. If you have been offered a job or, say, marriage, and the offer seems good, but for some reason you are not inclined to accept it, then maybe it’s not worth it? And, on the contrary, if your mind doubts, but your heart tells you to do just that, shouldn’t you follow its lead? If your intuitive premonitions have already been justified before, then that means you can completely trust them.

Method three. Try your luck.

This is for magically minded citizens. We're talking about different ones. Not even necessarily traditional ones, like cards or the I Ching. You can simply wish: “If the next candy I take out of this bag is green, then I will go to this place, and if it is red, then I will refuse the trip.” The main thing is to get the candies without looking.

You can also “tell fortunes” using a watch. Experts say that if on the dial, when you glance at it. there will be a “jackpot” - say, 11 hours 11 minutes, then you can rest assured: the upcoming meeting or undertaking will be successful for you. If the first two digits are greater than the second two, say 21 hours zero three minutes, you should not rush to make a decision. If, on the contrary, for example, the clock shows 15:39, it means that time is pressing for you: hurry up so as not to miss your chance.

Now special balls for decision-making have appeared on sale. You formulate a question, shake the ball and look at the answer in the window. Just remember that the ball does not predict the future, but only tells you what to expect and how best to act in a given situation.

Method four. Reading the signs of fate.

Suitable for those who are interested, if not in mysticism, then in psychology and. When thinking about a solution, pay attention to what is happening around you. Suppose you are planning to go somewhere, but you are not sure whether to go or not. And then suddenly the phones start ringing and you are bombarded with requests from friends, you lose the keys to your apartment and discover that the sole of your shoe has fallen off... Most likely, Providence is telling you: it’s not worth going to this meeting.

Or someone offers you cooperation, and his last name turns out to be the same as that of a person whom you knew many years ago and with whom you had some kind of unpleasant situation... Is it a coincidence?

Or you are planning a tourist trip, and suddenly, by a strange coincidence, you come across a post on the Internet from a former client of that same travel company, who recalls with horror how he used its services...

They ask you to borrow a large sum, and then the title of the note catches your eye: “Company N has gone bankrupt”...

You have had a stabbing pain in your lower back for three months now, but you can’t decide whether to go to the doctor. And then you catch a snippet of someone else’s conversation on the subway: “I did an ultrasound yesterday, they said there was a kidney stone...”

You are wondering whether to go on a date with the gentleman who invited you, and on the radio they sing: “Don’t go to meet him, don’t go. He has a granite pebble in his chest.” Why not a hint?

A “picture” can also carry a hint. For example, you are not sure whether you should connect your destiny with this particular person. And suddenly you see a couple of tender swans on the pond. Or, on the contrary, you meet a couple of cats desperately fighting on the street... Draw the appropriate conclusions.

Of course, you shouldn’t take literally every little thing for granted. But if a word or event caught your attention, stuck in your memory, or it clearly seemed to you that “it’s all about you,” that it’s connected specifically to your situation, then it makes sense to take it into account. Good luck with your decisions!