Spartan Scroll

by Giselle Manzano

One decision is all it takes to create an impact on our future, moving us one step closer to either successful achievement or complete despair.

At this point in our lives, there is no possible way to ensure positive outcomes for the future. However, we should look forward to the future instead of fearing it, no matter what it may hold.

Our past decisions have brought us to where we are now. Every little choice made, consciously or unconsciously, has influenced our arrival at this point in our lives. If we find ourselves in situations we do not like, then the time to change our decision-making habits is now.

High school is a crucial time to practice the steps we need to take to make decisions. Nothing makes us feel worse than ending up in a bad situation we could have avoided with more care in making the choice.

As stated by Businessdictionary.com, decision making is the thought process of selecting a logical choice from available options.

Executive decisions are defined by having to overly weight difficult outcomes. This requires critical thinking skills to ensure that we have taken the correct step to end up in our destined area.

According to Abigail Brenner of Psychology Today, “Learning how to make good choices and wise decisions depends upon several factors: a person’s developmental stage/age, having a general idea of right and wrong, understanding what the decision-making process entails, and practice.”

Depending on a person’s age, there are choices being made that have increasingly significant results. Whether deciding which college to attend or what shoes to wear, a certain approach needs to be used in making a choice.Priorities vary, but that does not mean that there are choices that are easier to make.

Life-changing decisions can create stress that further affects the decision-making process. According to Everyday Health, when exploring the pros and cons of a topic, over-thinking can cause “paralysis by analysis,” or getting overloaded with information.

Research on all possible choices should be done simultaneously in order to ensure that we have made the right choice. Knowing the possible outcomes of decisions will give comfort and reinforce the practice of proper judgment.

Following one’s heart is an essential part of creating a strong emotional connection with our choices. We are designed to follow a ‘gut feeling’ that helps sway our decisions.

“What happens in our bodies really does appear to influence what goes on in our minds. We should be careful about following these gut instincts, however, as sometimes they help and sometimes they hinder our decision making,” said Barnaby D. Dunn, co-author of the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, UK, in a press release.

Accepting responsibility relies heavily on how we approach situation. In some cases, actions are hindered by excuses and postponed because of waiting for the right circumstances.

This is an avoidance technique we call procrastination, which can lead to more stress and create a negative impact on health.

Based on the research on personality and health by Fuschia Sirois, the “direct route by which procrastination affects health is stress, and it’s associated with psychophysiological reactivity that leads to changes in immune function that can adversely affect health. The indirect route involves our delay of health-protective behaviors.”

Trying new things is an important aspect of reaching a decision. Deviating from the familiar will encourage us to try new things. Weighing the pros and cons can be too heavily based on intuition, so one may miss the new experiences that come with a decision. To avoid this, taking an extrovertive approach to all possible choices gives us the freedom to explore the unfamiliar.

Learning proper decision-making is an ongoing process that will take years to master. Situations change, along with experiences, so the more open we become, the easier it is to make a choice.