When you need to make an important decision, what comes up for you?

Do you agonise over the choices, worrying about what will happen if you make the wrong one?

Do you instinctively know which one feels right, but can’t quite bring yourself to make the final call?

Does it feel like you are stuck in the same thought cycle of pros and cons?

Making a decision can be exhausting when it feels like there isn’t a right answer. An answer that meets everyone’s needs. An answer that doesn’t upset or disappoint anyone, including ourselves.

This kind of decision can spread out over days, weeks, months. Hovering in the background, taking up headspace and emotional energy.

It can feel as though we are teetering on the edge of something, wanting to make a move, taking a run up, stopping and reconsidering. Not committing either way.

The agony of not choosing can be agony.

What can help ease the process?

Firstly - and most importantly - give yourself a hug. It’s OK to feel stuck. Some decisions are bigger and harder than others. Often, you’re getting closer and closer, even if it feels you are going round in circles.

Secondly, recognise that it’s hard to make a choice when we’re pulled in different directions inside our heads. It’s important to unravel the competing priorities.

There are 3 questions I find super useful to do this:

· What will you regret if you choose option A / say yes?

· What will you regret if you choose option B / say no?

· Which regret would you rather choose?

And finally, remember, no decision will be perfect, but it will be the right one for where you are right now. There isn’t just one ideal path - or regret free one – and you will generally feel better once you’ve decided on a way. In the words of Bill Burnett & Dave Evans “There is no right choice, only good choosing”.

How do you make decisions?

And how can choosing your regret set you free to make it?

Wishing you all a great week,