3 Steps to Making Decisions You Won’t Regret

I happen to be the Queen of Indecisiveness. The fear of making the wrong decision can paralyze me. What if I move to the wrong place? Head down the wrong career path? My head swims with endless Pro/Con lists, which often keep me up late at night and get me out of bed early in the morning. Yep- clearly I fit with the classic Type-A, slightly neurotic, oldest child stereotype 🙂

My analysis-paralysis syndrome became all consuming as I approached the spring semester of my senior year in college. I literally had NO idea about what to do with my life. After Plan-A failed, I was thrust into a tumultuous period that involved sleepless nights, lots of tears and incessant conversations with friends and family. Finally my future came down to a pivotal decision, with ramifications that would lead to drastically different life paths, including potentially moving far away from Florida, choosing between totally different careers, and uprooting relationships, familiarity, etc.

My options were:

1)   Go to grad school to become a teacher

2)    Do a summer internship with a PR firm in DC

Obviously we know how that decision turned out. Looking back, do I think I made the right choice? Definitely. But to play devil’s advocate, I don’t know that going to grad school would have been the wrong choice either.

All these “fretful” and “huge” decisions I’ve made throughout the years have slowly shown me that I spend WAY too much time worrying about making the wrong decision rather than concentrating on making whatever decision I make, RIGHT!

Maybe this outlook is obvious for many of you, but for you over-thinkers out there, I’m guessing you might be able to relate!An Harvard Business Review article helps to put difficult decisions in perspective and provides three helpful tips to consider when analysis paralysis begins to set in:

1. Pay close attention to the feelings and emotions that accompany the decision we’re facing,

2. Assess how motivated you are to work toward the success of any given option

3. Recognize that no matter what option we choose, our efforts to support its success will be more important than the initial guesswork that led to our choice

We are multi-faceted and resilient—choices and the following outcome are ALL what we make of them…And remember decisions often seem final, but most aren’t- there’s always room for change, growth and rebirth. I have to preach this to myself every day because I still do not always take this to heart-BUT the more my mindset changes, the more I believe it!