Every time you make a choice, you have an end result. For example, if you eat different types of food and make healthy choices, your end result could be fitness. Is it always easy to make the right decision? No. But as hard as life is sometimes, it's important to remember that every choice has an end result.
As a child I was raised in a small community where we did not have much opportunity for higher education but what we did have were two weeks on each side of Labor Day for kids to “get their ya-yas out”—to cut loose, enjoy themselves with no lingering consequences and no worries about repercussions. It was, to a large degree, carefree.
Later as a young adult my father encouraged me to pursue my education and I was able to attend university, where I pursued a degree in psychology. The one thing that I thought I would never do was become a psychologist. Choosing not to learn psychology would have been understandable—many parents want their children to become lawyers or doctors for example. However, choosing not to pursue higher education simply because of an aversion to learning psychology seemed rather odd. Typically, parents who push their children to pursue higher education are either anxiety ridden or they love the idea of their child having a degree. It's almost never an aversion to learning psychology.
Once I began working as a psychologist, however, I noticed that many of my clients seemed to be very anxious about making decisions and what end results those choices would have; and their anxiety seemed warranted.
The words "what if" were used frequently throughout conversations with my clients and those words troubled me. The client would say: "What if I make this choice? What will the result be?" The phrase "what if" was being used by folks who did not feel they had enough information to make an important life decision.
Most of the time, the "what if" was not the client's fault; it was his or her parents' fault. For example, a teenager may well feel pressured by his or her parents to attend college in a city thousands of miles from their home town—a town where their family might not have many friends. When the young person considered making this choice, he or she thought about not only what he would be getting out of college (what end results) but also what he would be losing (what could happen if that choice went bad). These things need to be considered when making any meaningful decision: the positives and negatives.
It's not always easy to make the right choice—especially when making that choice requires leaving a comfort zone or going against one's parents' wishes. In those cases, there are indeed risks involved with making that choice. If a teenager wants to live in New York City after graduating from college, for example, he or she might lose the support of family and friends who would prefer living in rural Iowa. There are always risks involved with making decisions; some are just more serious than others.
When faced with a life decision it's important to evaluate the end results—what could happen if things go great as well as what could happen if things go bad. The more information available, the better the decision will be. And while it is true that sometimes there will be no guarantee in life, when making a choice that involves life altering decisions, most people prefer to make a stronger judgment of what might happen than a weaker judgment.
For example, if you want to buy a new house it's helpful to spend some time on the Internet reviewing the area and past sales of nearby houses before buying an old house and fixing it up. You want to know what could happen before you make the final decision.
Post a Comment