To be successful in life we have to have a standard or system for decisions. Most of us are faced with more decisions in a day than we care to make. We often are hurried in making decisions because we feel pressure to make them. We also have a 'get it done and move on' mentality.

• How do you make daily decisions?

• Is there a process or system that you follow?

• Do you have a system to determine your focus point based on what really matters to you?

Let me share with you a series of questions that will help you make decisions more effectively and efficiently.

• Is this consistent with my priorities?

It is amazing how easily we can be moved off our priorities. Something comes along that looks enticing and we jump on it. Many of us will change course at the drop of a hat. Like a game of chess, each move we make must be evaluated against our priorities and our key objectives. In chess it's clear, our objective is to capture the king. Many people think the objective in chess is to win. That is the result or outcome, but capturing the king is how you do it, which is the priority.

• What are my priorities for this year?

• What are the priorities for this quarter that align with my yearly priorities?

• What must I do this month, or this week, to be able to fulfill my annual priorities?

• Is this within my area of skill?

• Am I attempting something I already possess a skill for or am I going to have to perfect a new skill?

Our highest return, with the lowest risk, is staying within an area that we are already competent. Too many of us venture out into uncharted territory because it's new, exciting, and fun. Our objective is to align our priorities with what we already possess in skill and expand the return on investment we can receive. As we achieve higher levels of skill in our core area, we will be able to devote increased discretionary time to new ventures.

Most of us are still stuck on the steep side of the efficiency curve where we are investing large amounts of time to acquire the skill necessary to increase the leverage and reduce the time we invest.

A fatal error we see in people is they have multiples of these efficiency curves in new ventures at once. They are working to climb up too many of these curves with limited results. Too many new ventures all at once destroy one's effectiveness.

• Is someone else more capable than I?

The successful leader is the person that evaluates their skill for each activity and delegates accordingly. Too many of us fear releasing control of things that others are more skillful in completing. We worry about not being in control. We worry about it being done perfectly. Our standard of expectation might be too high.

If perfection or perfect execution is your standard, you will be disappointed with yourself and anyone who works with you. The value of work produced will be significantly diminished. The most grueling, time consuming segment in anything in life is the last 10%. If you will accept a 90% standard of excellence, the volume of work will increase significantly. We can use up more time in that last 10% than we invested in the initial 90%. If you are holding out for perfection or that last 10%, you are severely stunting the volume of work completed.

• Do I really have the time?

In our overworked, overextended lives, we have to evaluate – do we have the time for something else? The key word is really. We need to get real in evaluating our schedule and current commitments. Most of us don't really have the time without changes to our schedule, outsourcing current responsibilities, or changing the priorities and objectives in our plan. The old saying “something's gotta give” is really true in decision making toward our objectives.

If we follow the checklists we will find greater success in our decisions. We will increase the results we achieve without increasing our time invested. Take the time to figure out your focus and objectives. Your results will surprise you.

Published: February 6, 2009

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Dirk Zeller is a sought out speaker, celebrated author and CEO of Real Estate Champions. His company trains more than 350,000 Agents worldwide each year through live events, online training, self-study programs, and newsletters. The Real Estate community has embraced and praised his six best-selling books; Your First Year in Real Estate, Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies®, The Champion Real Estate Agent, The Champion Real Estate Team, Telephone Sales for Dummies®, Successful Time Management for Dummies®, and over 300 articles in print. To learn more regarding this article, please visit www.realestatechampions.com.