How to Stop Being Afraid of Making Decisions

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Happy Tuesday! 

I hope you all had a lovely weekend! I am running around trying to get ready for my trip tomorrow. Isn’t it weird how no matter how well you plan before a trip, things keep popping up to do?

That’s where we are now. But it doesn’t matter, it all seems to get done in the end.

Today’s post is about decisions.

Do you try to avoid decisions because you don’t want to make a choice? Or you want someone else to make it?

Surprise…

Not Choosing Is a Choice  

When you have to decide on two or more choices or variables, and you pass on making a decision, you have made a choice. Wouldn’t it make sense instead to allow yourself to be in control of the decision, rather than someone else? If you don’t make a decision, in many cases the choice is passed on to someone else. Since it is always better for you to be in control of your destiny rather than another, not making a decision is a bad decision.

Indecision Also Causes Low Self-Esteem 

You begin to resent yourself, saying things like, “I couldn’t even make that small decision. It wasn’t some big, life-changing choice presented to me, yet I still couldn’t decide.” This mindset can make decisions in the future even more difficult to make. Besides, it does no good. It is a false representation of what actually happened.

Whether you make a good choice, a bad choice or no choice, you have decided. This is just a decision. It is not the end of the world. If you decide not to choose, and that turns out being incredibly beneficial to your life, don’t tell yourself you did the right thing. You are simply playing the lottery, hoping against hope that not choosing would somehow get the universe to deliver the best possible scenario.

Studies Show that Indecisiveness Leads to Stress

Stress causes inflammation and inflammation promotes chronic diseases and health problems, so you are healthier and happier when you take decisive action. Don’t entrust your future to others. Take control of your life and make a conscious decision to be more decisive. You’re the best person to make decisions for your life.

Analysis Paralysis Is Real

If you are concerned you don’t have all the information needed to make the smart decision, understand that analysis paralysis is a real thing. Waiting for more information can paralyze your decision-making process, the same as having too much information to sort through. If you are rationalizing a reason for delaying a choice, your justifications are putting off the inevitable.

Are you going to make some poor decisions in your life? Sure you are. We all do. Humans are imperfect. We make mistakes. Knowing this should make the decision process easier, not more difficult.

Look at Decisions in a Different Light

A lot of people are scared to make decisions because they believe that people will view them as failures if their choice delivers negative results. They’re afraid that one bad decision will haunt them for their entire life. This leads to incredible indecisiveness and an inability to see a clear-cut decision when it is staring them in the face.

View Decisions Objectively

Start looking at the decisions in your life as two different physical objects. View them objectively. See a choice you have to make as a physical thing, like a ball or a set of car keys. Attach no emotional importance to these objects. Now ask yourself this question, “Are either of the objects before me either good or bad?” Obviously, a key chain or a ball cannot be positive or negative.

They are just objects. You can play with the ball and have fun, and the car keys help you get to work so you can earn a living. You could also step on the ball and sprain your ankle, and you could get in an accident driving to work, which wouldn’t have happened if you couldn’t find your car keys.

There’s No Such Thing as a Bad Decision

Still, all of those things are the results of your personal interaction with those objects. Remember that there is no such thing as a bad decision. Decisions are just things, objects, choices to make. In many cases, you’re going to have to decide on one choice or another. If you decide not to choose, you have made a decision, and not necessarily the best one.

Also, all of your decisions interact with each other to contribute to any successes or failures in your life. So, it’s hard to make the determination that one specific decision was bad. If you had not made that particular decision, it may have impacted other decisions that led you to a specific place. Your entire life could have changed — and possibly for the worse — without any of the decisions that you have made over your lifetime.

 How to Overcome the Fear of Making Decisions

Some of us are more indecisive than others, but for those who don’t like making decisions, you could be suffering from something much deeper than just simple procrastination or avoidance. When you have something to do, such as a university assignment or deadline to meet, doing other things to try and avoid it is relatively normal for most people. However, if you strongly fear making decisions to the point where the idea of decision-making gives you anxiety of stress, you might need to think about ways to overcome it.

How Can You Overcome the Fear?

The problem with having a fear of making decisions is that it can really make your life difficult. The idea of having to rely on other people all the time either to make decisions for you or help you to make decisions, whether big or small, can cause you even more worry and fear in the long run. Here are some ways to become more decisive.

Stop Being so Worried about the Outcome

Sometimes you have to go for it and not worry so much about the outcome. Overthinking is one of the problems that causes different fears.

Make More Decisions

The more decisions you make, the higher the chance of making right decisions.

Step Outside Your Comfort Zone

Push yourself to make decisions that you would normally leave to other people. Talk to the people close to you about your worries, and they will reassure you that it’s okay if the decision you make doesn’t work out that well.

The mental stress and frustration that can arise from being scared to make a “bad decision” is a waste of time, since there are no such thing as bad decisions. You don’t have a crystal ball. You don’t know if the decision you make is going to turn out good or bad, so in the present time, the choices you have to make are equally neutral in nature.

Just choose.

Have a wonderful day!

Loving Life–The Reboot!

Dominique