Make a Decision

Volition by Michael Micali

Volition is defined as the act of making a choice or decision. Other sources describe it as "the cognitive process by which an individual decides on and commits to a particular course of action."

So what that means is we have the power to choose our own attitude, our own happiness, or even our own path in life. All it takes is making a decision to do just that. All it takes is overcoming our own self-doubt.

It is the making of a decision that we often struggle with. We worry either about the outcomes of a decision or about having enough information. Sometimes it comes down to trusting our own ability to accept the choices we have made. Other times we are simply scared to decide.

Whatever is preventing you from making those decisions, know that the power to decide still lay in your own hands.

Knowing that you have that power is a big part of moving forward. But if you need some added ideas, Kathryn Britton wrote a good article in Positive Psychology News Daily titled "On Making Choices". In summary, she offers six tips on improving your ability to make a decision.

1. Learn how to make good enough choices, rather than aim for best choices.
2. Make a choice and then focus on its benefits instead of peering down the road not taken.
3. Remember that the identifiable attributes of a decision may be negligible compared to the accidentals that one cannot predict.
4. Create personal heuristics for choices that do not warrant great effort, such as selecting items on a menu.
5. Group large numbers of options into categories so that you can rule out several at a time, rather than having to study the pros and cons of each individually.
6. After collecting the pros and cons of the remaining alternatives, give your intuitive mind a chance to work on decisions that involve integrating a large number of complex options.

The choice is yours to make. Start with small ones if you must but the key is to make a choice and move forward. There might be setbacks but you make a choice and you go with it. Of your own volition, you keep moving your life forward.