Lisa Robbin Young

My "messy room" strategy for easy decision making.

Every day, we're tasked with thousands of decisions.

How many? Well, Cornell University researchers said we make about 226 decisions just on FOOD in an average day.

The total number for adults is somewhere in the range of 35,000 decisions a day. Many of them are impulsive, and logic-driven (pro/con, etc.), but that's STILL a lot of remotely conscious decision making each and every day of your adult life.

Kids only make about 3000 decisions a day. Ahhh, those were simpler times, right?

Ten times more decisions and much less time in the day to process them all. What to do?

Here's a decision making tool that I've used for myself and my clients for years now - one that gets immediate results and gives you clarity when you've probably been feeling stuck on something for a while, maybe even overwhelmed at the prospect of having to choose from several equally appealing (or unappealing, as the case may be) options.

I call this my "messy room" technique.

This is just one of the tools you'll be working with in Your Breakout Year - my summer workshop for creative entrepreneurs. This program is designed to help you map out AND implement a clear path to a six-figure annual revenue stream.

  • You begin by closing your eyes and imagining each option on a blank sheet of paper.
  • Now crumple the paper and throw it on the floor. Do this for each of your options.
  • Can you see the messy room? All those options, all that wadded up paper on the floor? Oy. What a mess, right?
  • Well, now it's time to clean up. Which piece do you pick up first? You can't pick them all up at the same time, and you can't just leave them there. You've got to clean up the mess of ideas you've made, so which piece gets picked up first?
  • Take your time. Wait until one piece starts to "call out" to you louder than the others.

THAT piece is the idea/concept/decision that holds the most energy for you, so that's where you need to act first (yes, even if you don't WANT to, which is another thing altogether).

The Brain has different ways of making decisions...

The brain is a funny thing. When we take something out of one modality into another, our brain gets to work on the problem in a different way. By changing the way you assess the situation (from emotional or logical to visual), your brain has a new way of looking at the problem. The old block (which is probably a conflict between emotional and logical) is interrupted and you're able to make a decision so that you can move forward.

Often times, it doesn't matter what you decide, only that you finally make a decision so that you can get momentum again. So even if you "randomly" select a paper ball, you've made a decision and can move forward.

If you're a tactile processor, you might ACTUALLY write each option on a piece of paper and throw them on the floor. But then you've got a lot of cleaning up to do, which is totally NOT my jam. 🙂

Like I said, the messy room technique is is a powerful tool that's quick and easy to use to get clarity now, and get moving again.

Whether you're starting from scratch, been hobbling along at this for a while, or you're ready to expand and add a new revenue stream to your creative business, Your Breakout Year is the exact process I've used with clients - for over a decade now - to help them get clear on what really matters and build out a business model that gets them there faster, with less hustle, and more ease.

Courses and classes alone don't get the job done. You'll just end up with a lot of information and zero implementation. This is an implementation-heavy program because I believe that if you do the work, you'll get results. So doing the work is baked into the program. No "learn now, implement later" in Your Breakout Year. Implement as you learn, decide what works and what doesn't, cut the fluff, and see real financial results in your business.

There are still a few spots left for early bird pricing, and a 4 installment payment option to make it budget friendly.

If you're ready to find your right audience and make good money doing what you love without selling your soul, join me for Your Breakout Year.

You might also like:

The Convo: Clearing space to improve your life

READ NOW

BYOG Day 17 - Did An Authority Hijack Your Brain?

READ NOW

924: The old Porsche and a new perspective

READ NOW