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Starting 2025 With Clarity

A note from your Decision Engineer

Reader

What a start to 2025! While everyone was celebrating the holidays, our household was battling the most persistent flu - definitely not how I imagined spending the festive season. My kids didn’t feel well enough to open Christmas presents until January!

Silver lining though? During my weeks of recovery, my LinkedIn posts somehow took off! (Perfect timing, right? There I was, barely able to hold my phone, watching the notifications roll in.)

But you know what? Sometimes these unexpected pauses give us the best insights. As a decision engineer, I've seen this pattern play out year after year - January is when career decisions peak. Maybe it's the fresh start energy, or perhaps it's those holiday bonuses giving people more freedom to consider their options. Whatever the trigger, I know many of you are wrestling with big career questions right now.

The thing is, we often think of career decisions as simple yes/no choices. "Should I quit?" "Should I take that offer?" But in my decade of helping leaders navigate these crossroads, I've found that the magic isn't in rushing to answers. It's in asking better questions.

So, now that I'm finally back on my feet (and can think clearly without cold medicine!), I want to share some questions that might help you navigate your own big decisions...

Here are 10 questions to help you make more intentional choices in 2025:

1. What decisions are you avoiding right now? Why?
2. Which choice from 2024 would you make differently with the information you have today?
3. Where are you letting perfect be the enemy of good enough in your decision-making?
4. What assumptions are you making about your choices that might need testing?
5. Which decisions are you trying to make alone that would benefit from other perspectives?
6. What trade-offs are you refusing to acknowledge?
7. Where are your emotions helping or hindering your choices?
8. What’s the smallest decision you could make today that would have the biggest positive impact?
9. Which choices are you overthinking vs. which deserve more attention?
10. What decision-making patterns do you want to change in 2025?

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Remember: The goal isn't to have all the answers right now. It's about getting clearer about the questions that matter to YOU.
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Until next time,

Michelle

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Want to explore more frameworks and tools for better decision-making?

Here are three ways to dive deeper:

• Listen to my podcast Ask a Decision Engineer ​
• Follow me on LinkedIn and let me know what you want to learn more about
• Explore my self-paced Decision Toolkit for Personal Decisions + other courses.

Ready to bring these frameworks to your team?

I'm currently booking speaking engagements for 2025. If your organization is looking to help leaders make better decisions with less stress and more clarity, I'd love to design an interactive workshop or keynote for your team. Popular topics include:

• How to make better, faster decisions as a team
• Overcoming decision fatigue: What to do when you're completely spent
• Facing a big decision? Why you shouldn't use a pro/con list
• Making good decisions when you don't have all the information you need
• How to be a better thought partner in decision making
• Stop agonizing, start doing: How to know you've made the right decision

If you're interested in booking me for speaking, feel free to send me a reply here.

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