Do You Struggle with Making Decisions?

Which path would you choose?

There are so many situations in life with outcomes we are ultimately responsible for. It begins in childhood when we're taught to pick up our toys, and as we grow older, we're taught to be responsible for our own decisions.

What I heard a lot when I was growing up was that old adage, if someone tells you to jump off a bridge, does that mean you're going to do it? Yeah, did you hear that too? There's a lesson in that, so much so, it's no wonder people continue to repeat it over and over again because it teaches you to have your own mind and think about your choices as well as the consequential outcomes.

We are influenced by parents, caregivers, church instructors, school teachers, relatives, and friends. When we are children, we naturally cling to our parents or caregivers for most forms of support. Every difficult situation we encounter in life, whether we choose to believe it or not, has actually offered a lesson in life. 

It is our responsibility as individuals to know the lesson because that lesson will develop inner strength.

If we lean too much on others in the growing process, we become co-dependent. If our minds develop too many unnecessary reasons why we can't make a decision, this will become a pattern through most of our adulthood. This pattern will enable us to carry fear every time we're forced to make a decision about anything.

If we are capable of making our own choices, then why would we want to rely on someone else's knowledge and awareness? Experience has value.

Face problems head-on

If we are more self-reliant, we will develop a level of perseverance to face what needs to be faced. Those who are indecisive and without courage will always turn to another to absorb some form of approval before actually finding the decision. Regardless of where the influence comes from when we make decisions, we have to own the decisions we make because we are rightfully responsible for the choices we choose.

Developing an inner strength is affected by facing fear. When we refuse to be self-responsible, we're suffocating our own possible efforts and we're closing the gate on the possibility of increasing self-confidence.

When we allow someone else to make a decision for us, we not only have to live with the effects of such a decision, we also make room to blame that other person for anything disagreeable that might follow.

What happens when a crisis occurs?

People who have always been protected all their lives and have never experienced a crisis will ultimately lean on another person when a crisis occurs. When the crisis is over, they will return to their normal course of daily activities. If they can't find a person to lean on, they might collapse because they have not learned to emotionally support themselves on their own.

There are a lot of people like this in the world today who don't have coping skills.

The weak always gravitate to the strong. A person who is determined to complain every single day loses power if people stop listening. The complainer does not take responsibility for the state of unhappiness and the effects of the unhappiness are passed around like unwanted dessert.

Every human being is motivated to speak and act, and each is responsible for what motivates him or her to do so as well as the after-effects to some extent. We are each responsible for our actions. To place blame on another person is an act of weakness. We are responsible for our choices once we have attained the ability to make responsible choices.

We are responsible for the lies and truths we tell. We are responsible for the jobs we are hired to perform. We are responsible for our types of behavior. We are responsible for all the language that comes out of our mouths and all the things we do with our hands.

It is not someone else's responsibility to make us kind or happy, loving or thoughtful, those things come from within. It is not someone else's responsibility to make sure we do the right thing. All these actions are a product of choice. It is our responsibility to make the right choice, the choice that is right for us as individuals, and the choice that has a positive effect.

Thank you for reading.

© Cathy Coombs