He said, she said

📣 Advice.

Sometimes it’s solicited, often times it’s offered.

Opinions are everywhere 🎤 and can vary from feeling like background noise to feeling like a constant (maybe major) irritant in life.

Here’s what I know.

The less certain I am, the more other people’s opinions affect me. This goes for any area of life. Most recently, I’ve had a slew of recommendations around travel health from prevention to treatment while abroad.

Next time you’re trying to make a decision and have a lot of cooks in the kitchen, try this:

🔎 Ask specific people.

Seek out knowledgeable people you trust and listen to their thoughts.

🔎 Do your own research.

Know your risk and the general advice.

🔎 Decide where you fall on the risk continuum.

Each of us has a different thresholds for what we’re comfortable rolling the dice with.

🔎 Put it all together and sleep on it.

Lay your cards out in front of you. When you add in your values, goals, and comfort levels, each decision will come with a feeling (good or bad - that’s information).

One might leave you feeling like you’re overdoing it, one might leave you feeling ill prepared. You may not find an exact fit because this is new territory. Most new things require you to experience discomfort. It’s how you grow. But when you make a decision and let it sit with you, you’ll give yourself feedback on whether it feels like calculated risk or a poor choice.

I have friends who fall on the more conservative end of the spectrum and prefer to prepare for any and all risk. I have friends who lie on the other end of that spectrum and feel comfortable managing things as they come. There’s no wrong answer here. By knowing yourself, you can feel comfortable with the choices that align with you.

💡 The key is knowing what you feel comfortable with. Second guessing decisions feels awful. But the unknown can feel scary too. It’s easy to stress about ever what if scenario.

If you find yourself stuck in the research phase, check-in and see how much new information you’re actually acquiring with each search or interview. If you’re just gaining tiny bits here and there, it might be time to tune into what’s coming from you, not just to you.

Being intentional about your decisions gets to be a process where you learn to trust yourself. It does not mean that you will always make the “right” decisions. You might look back on a choice and realize you’d like a do-over. Sometimes you’ll get that chance. Sometimes you won’t. Sometime you win; sometimes you learn (that’s a delayed win in my eyes).

I encourage you to do your homework, know yourself (this is key for the next one), and trust your decisions. Let go of the old habit to stay in decision limbo. It’s low vibe and only leads to more disconnection with yourself. And that leads to less good-for-you decisions.

🧭 Living a life that feels good to you means being able to trust yourself and your decision making abilities. Trusting yourself isn’t seeking perfection. It’s a self-exploration that comes with risk. But the payoff is worth it.