Understanding and managing uncertainty in decisions

It doesn’t take that much today. There is a simple question in my knee, but it locks me in an irrational paralysis. Out the door, my partner asked me to send him a list of ingredients for dinner. “Or you can get some takeaways on the way home,” he says. He kisses me with blissful ignorance, the front door settles in that frame, and I remain frozen in the hallway, restrained by all the options I have to choose from.

The next hour will keep all possible options in mind, including these options, the length of the meal, the feelings after eating, and the drinks that the subsequent choices may allow for ice cream afterwards. Find the recipe for Anchovy Spaghetti and propose dried Italian white wine. As soon as I send this out, my heart is filled with pizza and suddenly I want nothing else. I’ll send it along with another message explaining my new plan, a pizza place I had in mind, and a light red wine. I am pleased with the updated decision, so I recline my armchair and open the book.

It was a chilly Monday evening, and the rain hits the windows. The words in the book are blurred on the pages. Instead, an option that I had not considered happens to me: warm Indian curry, rich red wine. I will quickly make my phone and let my partner know this incredible insight. After sending two more messages, I scroll up and see that there are 11 unstable blue bubbles that belong to me, and there are none from him in the past hour. I have not achieved any of the readings I intended in his absence.

Fobo: A merciless pursuit of all possible options

Researchers have created this behavior “decisive procrastination” or more generally indecisive. Clearly, it is not possible to understand and carry out your true desires with confidence. Researchers believe it correlates with personality traits “neuropathy” and occurs in response to the abundant choices we make in our environment.

People with high levels of trait neurosis tend to have a rich imagination and (vividly) explore everything that may be right and wrong in each situation. For 20% of the population, this imagination-related fear is crippling. In these most extreme cases, a person may be considered to have Ablomania;The disorders that originate from Greek a – “No”, and bowl ‘will’.

Aboulomania describes the pathological level of indecisiveness, in which the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which controls rational decision-making, is easily overwhelmed. In these rare cases, individuals overanalyse the situation until they are paralyzed by their own analysis. Patrick McGinnis (the fear that I missed), who coined the term Fomo; Also, “Fobo” or The fear of better options. Fobo, a close cousin of FOMO, explains the relentless pursuit of all possible options. However, unlike FOMO, it may help us to show what we want in our lives, but Fobo offers little psychological benefits.

There is potential harm to not trusting your instincts

Psychologist and philosopher William James once said, “No one is more miserable than someone who is not habitual and indecisive. ” Before I studied indecision, I thought my own struggle was rather harmless, but indecision could hamper my ability to advance life, as rich choices are ironically ironically not stagnant.

Some of the web pages I encountered and peer-reviewed articles are surprised by the explanations of the consequences of chronic indecisiveness.

• Limit future opportunities by not settling on one preference
• Resist positive and life-changing changes
• Limit your career, relationships and health
• You don’t meet your own needs because you don’t know what they are

This last point really makes me home. It emphasizes why you can’t trust your instincts about how to make the right choice. You can’t pinpoint what you need in the first place, so how do you know which option is the option that will ultimately make you happy? Obviously, this is not a way to live.

Indecision is the product of unfounded fear and worry

Rationally, I know that this unobtrusive Monday evening dinner in August means little to my future self. You probably don’t remember. Still, I panic as if my future happiness and self-worth depends on the outcome of this dinner. So where does it come from?

There are several reasons for indecisiveness.

• If there are too many options, hence Decision fatigue (Are you trying to decide on a movie on Netflix?!)
• I want to please others involved in the decision
• Cultural and social expectations that may contradict the decision you want to make
• Internal psychological patterns of decision makers

For many of us, the internal patterns are the most appropriate. These include regret, fear of making the right decision, lack of confidence, lack of perfectionism, excessive imagination, and the tendency to counterminate or worry after decisions are made.

Can’t decide? Remember that you are experiencing the “suffering of abundance.”

Patrick McGinnis is important to recognize the perspective when anti-maining many possible outcomes. He emphasizes that Fobo is a symptom of privilege. Indecision, according to McGinnis, is the “suffering of abundance.” This is the result of a hyper-connected, busy modern world that is said to be able to get everything.

On a Monday evening when I was walking around the house we had cars, money, skilled kitchens, time and space available to us. For these reasons, nothing was wrong. In these moments deep in Fobo’s hole, if you’re watching a movie on a streaming service for just over an hour or so, or you don’t know what menu items to order, we’re literally ruined by choice.

Start small and look back at what makes you happy

If you are like me, and your indecisiveness is like having hazel eyes and beauty spots in your nose, it would be more difficult than simply saying, “I’ll be more decisive.” But it’s something you can practice right away. Now, as I write this, I’m sitting in the car wash waiting for the car to be cleaned. When I arrived the man asked me, “Which service do you want?” and waved towards the board full of prices and cleaning jargon that I didn’t understand. I stared at the board and opted for the $69 one, with Google, Umming and Ahing. Starting with small things, experts say.

Another useful tactic is to consciously reflect what makes you happy and, conversely, what makes you anxious or unhappy. Finding your happiness serves as a reference point for confident decision-making. It may also be worth identifying fears and rules influenced by others either through nurturing or by culture as a whole. Then, by freeing yourself from old and strict habits and beliefs, you can become the right author, a more active participant in your life. McGinnis emphasizes the importance of this when he says, “I spend my time worrying about what I have for lunch and taking away energy to focus on what’s important.”

Separate yourself from an idea that is “right” decision

Finally, Professor Yale Paul advises that at the intersection of these decisions, it is not possible to know in advance which path is the correct path. This means that by making decisions, there is no point in trying to predict the outcome with a list of pros, cons, and what IFs we become. This commitment to the present is refreshing. for Our future self, but I’ll create it Our future self.

I realized I had to separate myself from the idea that there is a “right” decision. Even when looking back in hindsight, it is extremely difficult to return the present moment to a particular decision. Instead, I try to make a decision that is better than no decision. And try to understand that it is impossible to know 100% certainty at the moment that makes you happy. All we can do is follow our intuition. I leave you with the wise words of Ekhart Tolle who speculate on this importance more concisely than I do…

“Every action is better than no action, especially if you’ve been stuck in unfortunate situations for a long time. If it’s a mistake, at least you learn something. In that case, it’s no longer a mistake.”

For more details on decision-making, you can manage your anxiety here.