Occasionally, it’s worth asking ourselves – How do we go about making big decisions?

To answer that, it’s 3 questions I find important to ask:

1) How exactly have we made big decisions before?

2) What was that process when things ended up working well, and what was it when they didn’t? This includes questions like how did we think about it and how did it feel at the time?

3) What would be the ideal process?

It’s worth taking the time to properly consider our approach because these big decisions (location, work, partners) often have huge consequences on our lives. Moving to a new city, doing a Ph.D., changing careers, being with someone or not.

The craziest part is realizing there is usually no single correct decision in any of those cases. You can let the fear of the unknown paralyze you and that’d still be a decision.
Big decisions rarely feel comfortable and non-scary exactly because of that exact expected impact in our lives.

I often go back to the following diagram and that big green tree. It can terrify you or you can choose to be inspired by the possibility. But taking the time to understand your decisions will help you make peace with them.

Some people only make such decisions when they assess the situation and they feel the logic behind the decision is unquestionable. Some people only make such a decision when it “feels” right. For what it’s worth, I’m in the latter category.

Remember, no right answer. It all depends. So understanding our preferred process makes it easier to replicate when we make the next big decision.

George Kroustallis // Minorstep