How do I pray before an important decision?

Ask for clarity rather than a sign. Signs are easy to misread and easy to manufacture when you already know what you want. Lay out the real options in words — that alone does half the work. Ask to want the right thing more than to be proved right. Then ask honest people, sleep on it, and choose. Refusing to choose is also a choice, and usually a worse one.

The tradition asks for siyata dishmaya — help from heaven: not a hand that decides for you, but strength given to the choosing you must still do.

From the sources “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths.” — Psalm 25