How to Use a Pros and Cons List to Make a Decision
“You can get with this / or you can get with that,” Black Sheep, the Choice is Yours
Have you ever been faced with a tough decision, where it seemed like any choice was a good (or bad) choice? If so, using a pros and cons list as a tool can help you to both prioritize and consider the implications of each option to inform you of making your final decision. When you can’t decide between this or that, a Pros and Cons list can help.
A Pros and Cons List is a simple, easy to use tool to support you in your decision making. It also serves as a visual aid to help you map out the potential impact of your decision. To start, format your list. You can do this with a pen and paper or even the notes app on your phone. A Pros and Cons list often consists of at least two columns, one for Pros (potential positive outcomes) and one for Cons (possible negative outcomes). A blank list might look something like the example below:
To use a Pros and Cons list, first define your decision. Be clear with what you’re weighing the pros and cons of. Then use the Pros column to list potential positive outcomes of the choice. When listing Pros, consider: What’s the best that could happen? What do I get out of this? How does this support the future that I want to create for myself? You can use the Cons column to list the possible negative outcomes of the decision. When listing Cons, consider questions like: What will I miss out on if I choose this? Does this match my goals? Is this a barrier of creating the future that I want for myself? You can even add additional columns to help you measure how important each pro or con is. You can also re-arrange each list by priority.
Let’s use an example: I want to weigh the pros and cons of picking up takeout for dinner tonight. My Pros and Cons List might look something like this:
I can then add columns to help me to prioritize the importance that each pro or con has for me.
And then to help me to visualize the decision, I can re-arrange the rows in terms of priority.
Visualizing these potential outcomes on the Pros and Cons List can help me to organize my thoughts and priorities in order to make a decision. In this example, it appears that the convenience of not having to cook and clean seems to be more important than my budget.
Pros and Cons lists are simple tools to help you quickly organize your thoughts as you’re making your decision. They will not make your choice for you, but they are tools to help. And if there are multiple options, you can map out the pros and cons of each! Having trouble deciding whether or not to move? To accept a job? Or even where to pick up dinner from? You can do a Pros vs Cons regarding not moving and then do a second regarding moving. When you’re trying to make a decision, a Pros and Cons List is a tool that can help you choose between this or that.
How Future Full of Hope Can Help
Sometimes a choice is more complex than a Pros and Cons list can navigate on its own - and in a case like that, choosing to participate in therapy with Future Full of Hope can help. Let us support you in processing your decision - follow the link below to get started today.
AI Disclaimer: This post is original and written by Kevin Boyd of Future Full of Hope, PLLC. No AI tool was leveraged to write this post
