When we summon the courage to make a big life change whether it’s at work or our home life, we can find ourselves thinking “why didn’t I do this before”?
So why don’t we?
It’s not an easy question to answer.
Decision making is difficult when it involves substantial change. It could be buying a house, moving jobs, having a child. We base decisions on opinions influenced by bias, reason, emotion and memory.
Fundamentally what you will get to is a point where you feel that the benefits of doing something outweigh the risks but why doesn’t it happen quickly enough sometimes?
We think we can make things better
Learning to accept a bad situation is important to being able to move on. When we in a job we are not enjoying for example, we may continue with it thinking we can do something to change the circumstances and we may try for several weeks or months to improve the situation. It can feel like failure if we don’t try right?
Analysis paralysis
Having too much information can cause us to procrastinate. The more information we have, the longer it will take to make a decision.
Living in a state of distraction
When we have an important decision to make, we can be side-tracked by the constant flow of information and distractions for example from social media. We struggle to focus because there’s always something to divert us from making that important decision.
Emotions get involved
We are emotional beings. During moments of peak anger or happiness we are prone to making rash decisions that may not serve us well. Learning how to regulate emotions and practice self-control will support sound decision making.
Fear
When we are in a state of anxiety, it can stop us from processing rationally the pros and cons of any big decision; we go into a reactive stressed state and our brains stops functioning logically. We are also primed to avoid what we fear which will cause us to delay what may be inevitable. Sitting with the fear and understanding it’s source will help you to overcome or at least return to a logical and rational state.
The next time you feel a change is needed, think about what might be stopping you from making a quicker decision.
