Every day we make many decisions, beginning from the moment we wake up – what to wear, what to eat, what time to leave our house, the list could go on and on. Most of these require minimal effort, but what about the decisions that we are not so confident about? While they may not impact our lives dramatically, they still feel very overwhelming and stressful in the moment. I am a person who is constantly struggling between choosing one thing or another (even as simple as deciding where to eat) and it can be exhausting. Below are some tips and tricks that I have learned to help you make decisions more effectively without the drawn out battle of deciding between this or that.
Use a decision maker or flip a coin
My go-to way to help make up my mind about something is to use an online decision maker or flip a coin. Now, this may seem silly, letting chance control your actions? But it is not about what either of these methods actually ends up choosing; but rather the awareness it brings to how you actually feel about a certain choice. So the next time you use a decision maker or a flip a coin, despite what it lands on, ask yourself: How do I feel about this decision? Am I happy with it? Or was I secretly hoping for something else? Regardless of the answer it gives you, you now have yours.
Photo by Jordan Rowland
Think about what you want to do vs. what you don’t
Throughout my journey of struggling to decide, I came across a really helpful tip that I try to apply to my everyday life. This focuses on doing what you want to do vs. what you don’t want to do. For example, if you want to speak to your professor about a grade but you don’t want to have to email them to set up an appointment, the focus here should be on the fact that you want to talk to your professor, not on the fact that you do not want to email them. This can be used as motivation to take charge and do the things that we want in life without regret.
Do what’s best for you
This is a very important tip. Most of us often make decisions to please those around us. And while that is thoughtful, making most of our decisions like this can begin to affect us negatively. So it is important to recognize that putting ourselves first and doing things to make us happy is not such a bad thing. This is your life and you need to make the decisions that you know are right for you and you only!
Remember there are no wrong decisions
When we get stuck in an endless cycle of trying to decide what to do, we go back and forth, asking our friends and family – making quite simple decisions a much bigger deal than they are. The key realization here is that there are no wrong decisions. Ultimately, if you are struggling this hard to make a decision there is not one that is more right than the other. So it is important to remember that choosing one thing over another will not result in a reward or punishment from universe, but rather just a different outcome.
Create a pros and cons list
As cliché and simple as it sounds, writing down a pros and cons list is effective when decision making. It allows you to be honest with yourself about how you really feel and to think about the consequences of each action. For each pro or con you can also add a weight to each statement displaying how much that point means to you. Being able to clearly see all of your thoughts surrounding the decision is a helpful and organized way to process and help you come to a final solution.
Photo by Mike Tinnion
Decisions – big or small, we make them everyday. The important thing is to not let those small decisions get into our heads and cause us to stress over things that do not matter in the grand scheme of life. The tips and tricks above not only help us to make decisions, but also give us the opportunity to be honest and learn more about ourselves. So don’t stress, hopefully these tips can help take the pressure off, and make making decisions seem less overwhelming.
Photo by sydney Rae