Say Goodbye to Decision Stress: Make This ONE Change to Choose with Confidence

 
 

We've all been there—staring at a menu, contemplating a relationship, or deliberating over which job offer to accept. Decision-making can be overwhelming, leaving us stressed and uncertain about the choices we make. But making one change to your decision-making mindset can release the stress of decision making for good!

Decisions are hard because we often see two (sometimes more) distinct options. And most often, we use all-or-nothing thinking to assume that one of those options is “right” and the other is “wrong.” We usually take it one step further to imply that we are “wrong” or “bad” if we make the “wrong” decision. On top of that, we usually assume that the decisions we make are FINAL so we have to get it “Right.” And then, we often look back on decisions with new information we have now (but didn’t have at the time) to “prove” how wrong we were about making that previous decision…talk about pressure!!

For most decisions that we are stuck contemplating, there is usually not a clear-cut, absolute right decision. When we acknowledge that, we can shift our decision making mindset which changes everything. Shifting that mindset to believe that we are making the best decision we can make in the current moment with the information we have AND that after making this decision, we are able to make ANOTHER decision frees our brain from the idea that we must get it “right” the first time. And the more stressed we get about making a decision, the less access we have to creative thinking because our brain thinks there is danger and goes into survival mode, making the decision even more challenging. Change your mindset to see that making a decision is FREEING. It allows the ability to take in new information and then make another decision, which leads to another and another.

Think about this: You didn’t get to this place in your life by making only one decision. Rather, you are here because of a series of decisions.

You can practice this new mindset on smaller decisions like what to have for dinner or what outfit to wear. Remind yourself of these key points:

  • You have the ability to make this decision.

  • You can use the information you have right now to make the decision.

  • You can’t see into the future or predict the outcome with certainty. No one can.

  • After you make this decision, you have the opportunity to collect new information and make another decision.

Life is a series of decisions. Reminding yourself of that takes you out of the sympathetic fight-or-flight stress mode and allows you to think more clearly and see new possibilities that could come from this and future decisions. You are only one decision away from a new option!