One of the most powerful things humans can do is to make a choice. We get to analyze, to listen, to debate, and to come up with a decision. Every choice presents its unique experience and consequences. Making a good choice is hard, however, it somehow reflects who we are and how we want to live our lives.
Perhaps, when making a choice we all have a fear of being wrong, which essentially means it will be a longer route to get to where we want. However, does being on time or fast matter? Biologically, our energy will decrease as we age and we will not be able to do certain things well as when we were young. Therefore, we might want to arrange the order of things that happen in our lives in our own way but there will be constraints. Some people want to complete their education before having a family while others might do the other way around.
However, is there really right or wrong decision? Right or wrong according to which standard? At the end of the day, it is on us to make our own decision. To put it in perspectives, there are bad decisions which will not bring us to where we want. The challenge is that there are many unknowns and things that we do not have a control of happening along the way that deviates our journey after the decision. This is the area we need to let go, we can only do our best to make the best decision in that moment and then follow what we map out, the rest is destiny.
To make a good decision, in my opinion, we need to do two things very well. One is to be very specific about what we want. The other is to evaluate each choice deliberately to see which one will eventually take us to a place that is closest to what we want. Do not ignore blind spots, and areas we are out of control because they may disrupt our way. By doing so, even if later on we do not end up having what we want, we can reflect to learn from this experience. Now it is common that we are not clear about what we want in the first place, but it is our job to find out, the sooner the better.
Most importantly, always make your decision yours. Listening to advices is good but if you let yourself be influenced or biased by an opinion, you may regret later. Be very realistic that if things go south, the first and only person you need to address is yourself, not your parents, not your friends or significant others. And no matter how much effort you need to put in to make a good choice, it will be worth it, one good choice leads to another potential good choice. Think clear, and listen to yourself.
