I have found out that if you suffer from indecisiveness (or decision paralysis), using randomness can help a great deal. I’d often have to choose between options, where neither one stands out as the one I must do right away. Some say it’s my zodiac sign (classic Libra) - but whatever it may be, it’s pretty unpleasant staying in a decision limbo for things that don’t always deserve that much of my mental energy. I’d lay the options out and assign a number to each one. I’d then choose a random number (I have a shortcut on my iPhone which helps with that). Whatever option gets selected, I get to stick to it.
It’s quite surprising, what a positive effect this has on decision paralysis. Once an option gets chosen, it almost feels obvious that this is the option I should have chosen at first.
However, it’s not uncommon that an option gets selected, and my initial reaction to it is “This isn’t right. I should be doing B, instead of A.” This is also great. It shows my willingness to do something, anything. And, that’s so much better than sitting in the decision paralysis limbo. Because, the whole point of choosing is not to make a perfect choice, but to just get going.
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