Growing up I was always encouraged to make a ‘pros and cons’ list when trying to make a decision. This was encouraged for anything ranging from which watch to buy, to which job opportunity to pursue.
While this may be a sound method for some people, I have noticed that it has often lead me astray.
While logic laid out clearly can be beneficial, I think it is important to trust your gut and follow your heart in making major life decisions.
For example, when I bought a car, I had an opportunity to buy a new, base model, or a dealer-used (driven 600kms to show to customers), fancier model of the same car. The catch was, with the fancier model, I was stuck with it being silver in colour. Previously I’d been contemplating a white or blue car, but told myself it was silly to get stuck on the colour, which isn’t a functional element of the vehicle. I ended up going with the dealer-used, silver car. She’s a great car, I have no complaints… but this decision annoys me still, almost 5 years later.
Making logical decisions sounds like it’s always the correct choice. Even writing that sentence, it sounds silly to go against it. But rather than using purely logic, consider what you are sacrificing, and how much that may niggle at you over time. Especially if the decision is about something that will affect you in the longer term, such as a car you use every day, a wedding dress you’ll keep photos of forever, or a house you’ll make a home.
Make sure you also listen to your heart.
If you’re facing any decisions right now that you’re struggling with, feel free to reach out via the comments or through fyasolutions.com
The Adventuring Engineer 