Wednesday; May 23

I am not one of the most confident people you will ever meet.  Sure, I feel comfortable in most circumstances, but when it comes to making decisions I have the tendency to second guess myself.  Typically, my tentativeness manifests itself in wondering if I did the best I could do or if I offended someone by a decision I made or by the way I presented myself.  There may be others who find themselves with a similar lack of confidence, if so, here are some things we can work on together:
1.  Invest quality research and effective evaluation in a decision.  Confidence often accompanies knowledge and wisdom.  When we take the time to gather the most salient facts and make the effort to analyze them appropriately, we can be assured that we are doing the best we can be doing.
2.  Realize that we aren’t going to do it perfectly every time.  I think we all know this on a cognitive level, but we tend to struggle with it emotionally.  We want people to respect us and since esteem comes from aptitude we don’t feel like we can risk being incorrect.  When we surround ourselves with people who care about us, they are apt to be forgiving and nurturing so that even when we do make a mistake it isn’t “fatal”.
3.  Understand the different levels of decision-making.  While some of our decisions carry complex consequences, many others don’t really matter all that much.  Let’s learn to discern which of our decisions are important and place an emphasis on them.  When it comes to others that have less importance, let’s do the best job we can, then move on.
          In the end, let’s be willing to view our decisions through the lenses of long-term impact.  If people won’t care about today’s decisions two days from now there is no need for us to be obsessing about them two weeks from now.
          Think About It!

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