Making Decisions: Avoiding the Disappointment of Neglecting Your Desires

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When you are faced with making choices, are your choices your own? Are you able to decide what you want for yourself? Do you base your decisions on what others want for you instead of what you want for yourself? 

It is key to allow yourself room to make sound decisions.  You must rely on your own deductions and decisions. At some point, no one else will be able to decide for you. 

The way to make better decisions is by, first, deciding what you like and what you do not like. This may seem silly or obvious but your thoughts and decisions come down to what you like, want, and prefer. This is all about you. Keep in mind that every now and then, it is important to reassess yourself. Our likes, dislikes, and preferences tend to change. 

Next, determine whether or not you are able to choose one thing over another. Personally, this is where I run into trouble. If the options are similar and I do not immediately find reason to like one thing instead of another, it takes more time for me to select one choice. I have had to overcome this by forcing myself to select one. On a case by case basis, if you are able to determine what your preferences are, doing so can help to improve your ability to finalize your choices. 

Most of all, it always helps to be realistic about the potential consequences of your choices. When I wonder whether or not I will be disappointed if I walk away, leaving an item behind or missing an opportunity, I have to honestly assess that potential occurrence or it could end in disappointment. Try this the next time you feel stuck in making a decision. 

Assess yourself to determine what you do and do not like and determine what your preferences are. Practice determining whether you have set preferences by acting out real situations. This could involve things like selecting a book to read at your leisure or finding a new podcast to listen to weekly. Finally, be realistic about what will happen if you miss an opportunity. Some moments are fairly insignificant, like choosing peppermint gum or spearmint gum. Others have more weight and significance, like deciding whether to take the creative writing track or the technical writing track of English. At times, some concerns affect us more than we realize and we are not aware of this until it is too late, or very troublesome, to fix them. For example, if you elected to explore your options instead of continuing in journalism after high school but now you are questioning or deeply regretting your choice, that takes a lot more to fix than having chosen the wrong flavor of gum. To avoid neglecting your innermost desires in any situation, give yourself permission to carefully decide and choose what is best for you. 

*image: courtesy of pixabay