How to make difficult decisions and to be happy with them

difficult decisions

In our lives, all of us have to make decisions. Some of them are rather easy to make, others cost us a lot of time and energy and at the end, we are still not sure, if we have taken the right decision.

The first category of decisions is called easy decisions: Usually, we have two or more options and we can easily collect pro and contra arguments. Finally, we draw the line and are sure which option is the best for us. In this case, one single option is better than the rest.

But there are also decisions, we have difficulties to take. Those are called difficult decisions. In this case, even if we take the same procedure described above (listing pro and contra arguments) at the end we come up with no result. Why? In difficult decisions, no option is better than the others, all alternatives have advantages and disadvantages.

How to make then difficult decisions?

Difficult decisions require reflecting upon the values that guide our life and which are important to us. Like for example justice, beauty, love… A detailed list of values can be found here: https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2004/11/list-of-values/

After you have selected maximum five values from the list, which make you resonate the most take again your alternatives and see which one reflects your values the most. Only then you will be content with the decision you have made. You should also search for interior reasons and not external facts to find the optimal alternative for you.

Ask yourself: What kind of human being do I like to become?

After you have taken the decision you need a commitment that means to assume the decision you have taken and to go the way you have started without looking to the left or the right for other alternatives. This is really important when you face problems and obstacles on your way to stick to the decision you have made.

Difficult decisions require commitment analogous to love stories, that means only if you open yourself up to your partner and assume that you are now a pair sharing your life with positive but also negative sides, you will be there with heart and soul for your partnership.

This inevitable changes you as individual and forms your self. Consequently, we develop our personality and this is the real beauty of taking difficult decisions.

The concepts presented here are based on an interview with Prof. Ruth Chang from the Rutgers University in New Brunswick (USA).

How do you make difficult decisions? Which strategies do you apply? I would be glad to read them – so I invite you to leave a comment above.

 

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