Today I wanted to discuss the inherent flaws I find with indecision and offer my perspective on it. It feels like it's very easy to choose between something we want and don't want, but it's slightly harder to choose between two things we do want. The real problems that I see are the ones that arise when we're forced to choose between two things we don't agree with. I feel that we can also find ourselves stuck in a place of indecision and that is, from my perspective, based on a fear of the unknown. I do have a generally fatalist outlook on life, but I'll try to cover these problems from both a fatalistic and non fatalistic standpoint.
Choosing between two things we want or don't want generally forces us into a "grayer" way of thinking. When we finally realize that we have to make a choice that we don't want to make or it will be made for us, it can be paralyzing, because we can get stuck on the "what ifs" between the two choices. Perhaps I would prefer this outcome and there is no going back once I make a choice. The problem I find is that life presents itself as a serious of these recurring issues and they come in patterns. Should I leave my job and follow my passions? Should I stay in a job I hate because I'm financially comfortable? Why can't I have it all? Well perhaps you can and it's really all about changing your expectations and assumptions about what that looks like.
Let's say for example, I want to write for a living and I don't know if I can support myself doing it. I can think of all of the reasons why society tells me that leaving a comfortable job that pays the bills to pursue something I'm passionate about is a bad idea. The problem is when I let society or other's dictate my own beliefs about reality to the point that I am afraid to live the life that I want. So I find an easy way to get over a fear of the unknown is to look at what I do know. If I am unhappy working the "financially comfortable" job and I know that I won't be happy doing it, then what is the worst case scenario? What am I really sacrificing? I don't feel that sacrificing something I know I don't want for a risk of something I may not want with a chance of something I do want is much of a risk. So why bother fearing the unknown if we know that we don't want what we already have?
My personal perspective is that of a fatalist, so I feel that indecision isn't really much of a problem for me anymore, but it doesn't mean that I don't still have those moments of hesitation. I tend to spend more time trying to remove assumptions and expectations around why certain outcomes are more or less desired. In my mind, no matter what I choose or if I choose to make no choice and let it be made for me, that whatever is going to happen is going to happen regardless. The question is all about why do I feel I want a certain outcome more than another and are my expectations and assumptions realistic? I find the less attached we are to the outcome, the easier it is to just accept whatever outcome it is that we ultimately get to and make peace with it. However you choose to look at life that, it's clear that indecision is a decision in itself, so there is no way to avoid those moments of being forced to make a choice that we aren't comfortable with. Namaste.