When you get a new idea, or tip, or financial or business recommendation, is your first reaction fear and skepticism, or enthusiasm and excitement? If your answer is excitement, then the idea is something that resonates with some part of your goals, values or priorities. Maybe you want to be excited, but a voice in your head is telling you that you have never done that before – be careful, you don’t want to get ‘burned’. Maybe the voice is actually someone you know – like a close friend or family member.

What do you do when faced with a new idea that could help you financially, and you have to sort through the emotions to make a decision? There are obviously lots of layers and issues to sift through, so the place to start is with a paper and pen. Get it all in writing: your goals, fears and excitement – these are the issues that the idea is intended to help. Treat the decision with the respect any good business decision does, and document the facts and the questions until you have sequentially, strategically and systematically compared and analyzed the idea as it relates to what is important in your life.