What Are You Afraid Will Happen If You Make The Wrong Decision?

I think when it comes to making decisions, a lot of the fear of making the wrong decision is really  the fear of regret. We don’t want to regret the decisions that we made, we want to make use of the time that we have in life, and we don’t want to look back and wish that we had made another decision.

 Although it’s clear when making a decision that we have no indication on what is necessarily a right or wrong decision, that can be hard to distinguish when deciding on something. 

If we pivot away from looking at a decision through the lens of right and wrong and instead view the decision as going down path A or path B, it can help alleviate that stress of making the wrong decision.

I recently listened to this podcast from Mel Robbins, and she was talking about questions that can help you figure out who you are and make decisions. One of the questions she asked was to get into the mindset of you when you’re 80 years old and think about the decision that you’re currently grappling with at this point in time. As an 80-year-old thinking about this decision and the choice that you made, would you regret your decision or would you be happy that you went for it?

 This frame of mind can help you distinguish if you’re going to be in that feeling of regret in the future. Since regret is the part that keeps us fearing the wrong decision we are doing something to challenge and alleviate that regret as a whole. Doing this can make decisions seem less scary because the fear of the outcome is lessened. 

Overall, instead of worrying about if you’re making the right or wrong decision, focus more on just making the decision. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in over thinking rights or wrongs of a decision but really in the midst of the decision is where you grow. 

When you’re indecisive and you’re scared of the outcome and your decision is rooted in fear, that is when you’re not growing. So while you may be dealing with the fear of regret or the fear of the outcome of the decision that you’re making, the best thing you can do for yourself is to just make a decision and see where it takes you. 

I'm speaking from experience that being decisive shuts up so much of the chattering in your brain about what you’re going to do. Making a choice and sticking with it, silences your mind as you handle the outcome of the decision.