2022-08-06

Advice given on August 6, 2022.

Decision Making Difficulties

Hey Jay,

I struggle with making decisions, both big and small. For example, I have difficulty choosing an ice cream flavor when I’m at the store. I also have trouble with decisions like where to go on vacation. I’m looking for some help to become more decisive. Do you have any ideas or strategies you think could help me?

Thanks,

Undecided Advice-Seeker

Undecided,

I’m sure you aren’t the only person with this issue. Beyond simply telling you to be more decisive, I have an unconventional suggestion. There is a pretty strange book called “The Dice Man” written by George Cockcroft under the pseudonym Luke Rhinehart, the protagonist of the story. I don’t think that the book itself is all that great, however the main premise is related to your dilemma. Luke believes his life is too boring, and seeks to add some randomness. To do this, he rolls a dice before every decision. He creates a number of different possible actions, and associates them with a single number or a set of numbers on the die. He then rolls the die, and takes the action associated with the number he rolled. You could adopt this approach to help you make decisions when you are having trouble deciding between two or more different options. It is a bit of a strange process, but it might help take the difficulty out of making hard decisions. Maybe over time you’d realize you do have a preference for certain choices in various scenarios!

Good luck!

Jay