Dear Indecisive Decision Makers…

You are probably that person who never knows what you want, but you always know what you don’t want. You are probably that person who tries to make plans with your (equally indecisive) friends, and no matter how many times you say, “oh I don’t care…” or, “I’m fine with anything!” you are still forced to make the decisions. You are probably that person who worries in the middle of the night about a decision you have to make sometime in the future (regardless of whether it’s near or distant) and fret over every possible outcome because, regardless of how indecisive you are, you are still going to have to make a decision. 

If you are “that person”… I feel you; I totally feel you. 

I mean, decisions are hard, right?? Even when they aren’t the be-all and end-all, there is still something about a decision that just seems so final. There’s something about the finality of it all that can cause you to second guess yourself every time you think you may have actually been successful at deciding something. I’m sure you know as well as I do that it can be one of your least favorite qualities in both yourself and the people around you. (Not that you don’t continue to hang around your indecisive friends, because c’mon, you’ve gotta love the spontaneity that comes from that friendship!… or something like that, right?)

If you’re anything like me, you probably wonder why we even struggle with indecision?? Why do we feel the innate need to “get it right” every single time??

Some of us may be perfectionists, always aiming to get it right the first time; you want to make the a decision that ensures everything else can fall into place. Oh, and some of us may just worry about what someone else will think of our decisions. (“I wonder if my friends won’t like me anymore if I choose Chick-fil-a over Panera???”)

But the cause of indecision I find to be most common, especially with important decisions, is that some of us are afraid of making the wrong choice and failing. I mean, wow, that fear of failure is a tough one right? The fear of making a decision for yourself and then falling on your face is one I find to be the absolute hardest to deal with. I just recently ended a several-month-long process of deciding where to go to college and had to swallow the fear that maybe I made the wrong choice. You know, maybe I’ll get to the University of Florida in August and realize that I bit off a little more than I can chew. Maybe I’ll realize that deciding to major in journalism wasn’t the perfect choice I thought it was going to be. Maybe I’ll move-in to my dorm and realize that the decision to not live in an apartment with my brother was one I’ll soon regret.