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Hello Reader!

It’s been said that Steve Jobs and Barack Obama chose to wear the same “uniform” each day to reduce decision fatigue. While decision fatigue is a real thing, I don’t believe it comes from making too many decisions.

If you’ve ever done the Enneagram or a Myers-Briggs test, your next adventure is with Human Design. It’s a type of profiling system that utilizes astrology, the Judaic Kabbalah, the Chinese I Ching, the Hindu chakra system and quantum physics together. It’s a system designed to help us understand ourselves and in my experience it’s accuracy far outweighs any other tool I’ve tried. Like mind-blowing accurate. It reflected back to me who I am without judgment that I’m doing or have done anything “wrong” like I felt after the Enneagram. It’s provided me perspective and given me permission to be wholly me.

According to Human Design, we make decisions in one of four main ways.

1. Emotional Authority
2. Splenic Authority
3. Sacral Authority
4. No Authority

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Emotional Authority

This person is not designed to make spontaneous decisions. They have consistent access to their feelings and are designed to pause before making a decision. They experience emotions in waves (ie mood swings) and need to wait out the wave before committing. This person needs to take their time and allow the full course of the wave to process. This gives them perspective. If they make a decision from a low point or a high point they will regret it later. When they are feeling good, everything looks better. When they are feeling bad, everything looks worse. A sense of clarity can only be reached over time as the waves keep on moving. Wait for zero emotional turbulence before moving forward. Patience is key. If there is doubt, the answer is probably no. There are three kinds of waves:

• Individual - this person experiences a wave that is deeply emotional and moody. They feel high highs and low lows. The waves are relatively stable and the person spends more time in the middle of the wave and then will have sudden spikes of up or down.
• Tribal - this person experiences waves that are relational. They are passionate. They are designed to feel their passion and take their time in making decisions, waiting for clarity before moving forward. The waves have a ratchet quality and ratchet up a notch at a time until they either reach clarity or explode. Then the wave resets and begins again.
• Collective - this person experiences waves that build, reach a peak, then crash. This wave builds with perceived expectations and then crashes. Once this wave crashes, it spends some time in the low of the wave before building again.
• Multiple - this person has more than one wave type.

Splenic Authority

The spleen is the center for intuition in the moment. Decisions are spontaneous and impulsive. However, this intuition can be as low as a whisper and requires practice to hear it. It may be a voice, a sensation, or a knowing. It’s essential to get quiet enough to hear the guidance. An important aspect to remember is it’s in the now. The guidance can change so it’s important to keep listening as circumstances change.

Sacral Authority

This person makes spontaneous decisions also, but instead of coming from intuition, like the splenic authority, it comes from the gut. It best responds to yes/no questions. This person can trust their guidance in the moment. If new information becomes available, the answer can change. For example, you may be asked if you want to go out to dinner and the gut response is “yes”. Then the conversation turns to where and you are asked if you want italian. When the gut response comes back “no”, it’s a new response and a new answer to a new circumstance. The “yes” can feel like an excited buzz or internal expansion and the “no” can feel like an uncomfortable knot or nothing at all.

No Authority

This person needs to talk out their decision to determine the right course of action with a trusted non-biased listener. The listener should serve as a sounding board, not providing suggestions, answers or solutions, but allowing the individual to process fully. This process can take up to 29 days. It’s important to allow yourself the time to process your thoughts, feelings and beliefs before moving forward.

So now that we know how we make decisions, let’s talk about decision fatigue.

I believe that decision fatigue occurs when we try to make decisions in a different way than we were designed to. For example, I have Sacral Authority and am a gut checker. When I make a decision it’s an immediate yes or no. I run into fatigue if I get into my head, vacillate between choices, second guess my decision or talk ad-nausea with those around me. Mike is a collective Emotional Authority. Christmas shopping for us is always an adventure. I walk down the aisles, picking things up and moving on. He prefers to go to every store on the Island comparing and contrasting allllll the products. It used to be painful for me to wait out his waves because they weren’t mine and that’s not AT ALL how I work. I’ve learned to go along for the ride and when he gets into neutral and is ready to make a decision, I check my gut and we go from there.

When you’ve made a decision in the past that you know deep in your soul is right, which of the above authorities resonates with you? Making your decisions in that way will never steer you wrong. Once you’ve made your decision, and you’re happy with your reasons, move forward in the direction you chose. When circumstances change, or new information comes to light, it’s a new decision.

Grateful for you,

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Diane

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