Make Hard Choices Easier By Looking Within Yourself

Hard choices are hard because neither option seems obviously better than the other. In this TED talk, Philosopher Ruth Chang explains that the secret to making hard choices comes from the reasons we create ourselves.

If you were to look at a choice and clearly see that one option was better than the other, the choice would not be difficult. So, how do you find the reasons to finally make a decision? Chang says that the reasons you need to decide are created by you.

When you’re faced with a hard choice, you’re given the chance to put your very self behind an option. It’s an opportunity to form who you really are. If you’re faced with a hard choice, stop looking for reasons out there to compare and contrast, and instead look for reasons in you for why one is better than the other.

Remember a hard choice you made about something small, like deciding what to eat. You came up with a reason for why you wanted to eat one thing over the other. Save yourself the agony, and apply the same strategy to your big, hard choices too. On the outside, big life decisions seem more complicated, but it all comes down to what’s right for you.

Ruth Chang: How to make hard choices [TED via Lifehack]