Your 10-step guide to intuitive decision making

Life is a constant, moving reflection of the choices we make. From choosing what you eat, to choosing your career, or figuring out the city you want to live in. Some of these decisions are less impactful, while some are more meaningful and wide-reaching.

Ideally, the choices that you make are ones that feel most aligned with your future vision, your intentions and your wants and desires. And as long as you consider what is truly important to you, you would think making a choice should be simple, you know what you want, and you go for it… right?

But then the thoughts start spinning. Questions start to roll repeatedly in the mind like waves. Can it really be that straightforward? Uncertainty and doubt move in.

Doubt can sound like:

Is this the right choice for me?

What if I am not good/smart/old/young/funny/pretty enough?

Who do I think I am?

What if I fail or it doesn’t work out, because of x-y-z?

What will other people think?

It can happen quickly. You’ve gone from thinking you know what you want, to now feeling confused and overwhelmed. Your overthinking mind is going round and round and it feels almost impossible to decide.

To make matters worse there is also added the pressure of making a right or “wrong decision as if there is only one way to move through life, and that this is the last decision you will ever make.

When you carefully weigh all the options and try to eliminate all possibilities of failure, this causes decision making paralysis. Striving for perfection doesn't leave any room for error and halts the flow of life.

In the quest for perfection, can you stop and ask who is deciding what is right or wrong? Who is setting those expectations? Does this doubtful, fearful voice belong to you?

Throughout my life, I thought that everyone else knew better than me when it came to decision making. I disregarded my instincts and feelings and instead listened to lots of outside information in the hope to stay safe and to protect myself from pain.

Instead of embracing the non-linear, unpredictability of life, my logical mind attempted to sanitize and control outcomes. It is the very way of human nature to attach to the old and the familiar. Fear of the unknown leads to attempts to control everything. Then I found that my life was being blocked from unfolding in the most beautiful, unimaginable ways.