To the indecisive

I have a friend who is indecisive.  Decision making is not a strong suit and it’s something he does not like to do.  Even the simplest decisions cannot be made by this friend of mine.  I’m trying to encourage him to make decisions.  Yesterday, when walking back from town, I asked him, do you want to go to the library or back to Isham?  I am not exaggerating: this decision took him 5 minutes to make.  There were both pros and cons to going back to Isham or directly to the library, and I felt ambivalent towards both.  Nevertheless, this decision took him at least 5 minutes to make while we were walking back. When he made the decision to go to Isham so I could sign in and pick up some sheet music, I asked him, which route should we take [there were three options].  This decision took him less time to make, but he continued to go back and forth between which road we took back to Isham.  At last he’d made a decision.  

I’m a proponent of the power of decision making.  There are simply too many opportunities and options in life of which route we are to follow each and every day.  Sean Covey sums it up perfectly, we are the pilots of our life and we drive which direction we want to go each day.  Decisions from when to wake up, to what order to do finish my homework, to what equipment to use at the gym.  I like to think that each decision I make today will impact tomorrow; everything is interconnected.  

Yet I understand that not everyone is like me.  Not everyone has an unequivocal plan of daily action, and even though I do, it doesn’t always unfold the way I’d plan.  But for my friend and for those who are indecisive, through rumination, I think I have one thing to say about decision making:

it doesn’t have to be complicated, but if we make the best decision each time we are put into that box, in the long run, we won’t be faced with as many critical, precarious decision making moments.