You Have To Learn To Trust Yourself

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I really hate making decisions.

No seriously, I can’t stand it. As ridiculous as it sounds, one of the things I find unbearable is being the sole person in charge of a decision, for me or for someone else.

“Where do you want to go eat?” I’ll probably dodge the question for half an hour until you’re incredibly hangry or not hungry anymore.

“Do you want to hang out this weekend?” I’ll probably say let me check my schedule…and spend the next few days wondering if I should go or not.

Heck, I wake up in the morning thinking I know what I’m going to wear, and end up changing my mind four times. I’ve always been someone who needs options and needs to know that if I want to change my mind I can, even if I probably won’t. If I could go throughout the day and just simply know that the decisions I make are the best possible decisions for my life, I wouldn’t have an issue.

Life doesn’t work that way, though. We never really know how the decisions we make now will affect us, or even when they will affect us.

The “fear of missing out” (FOMO) is a real thing. When looked at in a certain light, what is the problem? What is really wrong with wanting the best possible options for your life and wanting to be certain that you’re making the right ones? Where is the harm is keeping your options open just in case?

You are always missing out.

You will finally decide on a college and a major to pursue, only to hear stories from your friends about their colleges and their majors and wonder if you should be there, doing that. You may switch schools thinking it is where you belong, until you hear more stories or opinions. Or you stay at your school, always feeling like you could have picked somewhere better.

You will finally date that person you’ve been crazy about, and things will be good for awhile. Yet eventually the honeymoon phase will end and they will inevitably say something insensitive or hurtful. Even when they apologize, you’ll notice someone from one of your classes or your job that gives you attention. You’ll start to wonder if you made the right choice.

Something you would have loved even more, enjoyed even better, or would have been a better choice for your life in the long run. I hate to tell you this: Life doesn’t give us a roadmap. We don’t know which choices are the best ones. Some of us may have some instincts- A gut feeling, following your heart, direction from God, etc. Yet we will not always know if we are going the right way. So what do you do?

Trust yourself. You are a magnificent person. You are smart, capable, and incredible. You know your passions. You know your desires. You know what you are able to accomplish. While we all make mistakes, it’s likely that the choices you do make are good ones. Look around you. Stop looking for reasons to leave and start realizing that you have a lot of good reasons to stay.

Because the more scared you are of making the wrong choices and missing out, the more you will make the wrong choices. The more you will actually miss out.