Don’t you often find yourself Torn between two choices whenever you are at the crossroads in life, requiring you to take important decisions that are powerful enough to alter your future forever. It behooves you to take the right decision which you won’t regret later in life. Let me assure you that you are not alone in experiencing this sort of predicament in life. At the precise moment on the D-Day, most people find themselves split down the middle when expressing their choice among the two alternatives. There are numerous choices one has to make in day to day life. Whether to say yes or no? Agree or disagree? Whether to choose option A or B? Whether to use food supplements, probiotic and organic foods or not? The phenomenon is so peculiar that even strong and confident people feel the heat of the moment and find themselves develop cold feet just like any other ordinary person. Most people feel completely at a loss (or may be incapable) to confidently express their choice of going along with one of the two alternatives. I am sure this is your story too when you have to choose between two things. It is a classic puzzle that no one has been able to crack effectively. No matter how well one is prepared physically and mentally, but when the moment of making a decision arrives, he or she feels weak in the knees. I guess it is out of anxiety about the future as well as the importance we attach to the decision being taken, which are the primary causes of indecisiveness.

There are some critical decisions that you are expected to take, those that have huge bearing on how your entire life would shape up in future. No decisions other than those concerning your academics and career hold as much importance. For example, which college should you join and which course should you opt for. These appear to be innocuous or trivial decisions but when you make a choice about a particular college and a particular course of study, you get stuck with the subjects and the area of study as well as the profession for the rest of your life. It would be an uphill task to change either your subjects or a career in midlife. Decisions about career can be equally vexing. For example, should I take up training programs that help me take up high remuneration technology jobs? Should I join company A or company B? Company A pays me more but wants me to relocate while company B pays me less and keeps in my home city. Clearly there are no simple answers and deep thought needs to be devoted to make right decisions.

[ Also Read: Are we spoilt for choices? ]

Most other decisions might not be as complex or frustrating. Do you want a coffee or tea, a burger or a pizza? I remember a friend of mine who used to get thoroughly confused whenever he went shopping. He could never decide which shirt to buy that suits him the best. He was always torn between two or three choices of shirts. He used to spend hours observing himself in mirror and still needed me in the end to settle the problem. And even after picking up one, he used to be still uncertain of the choice so exercised. If he had enough money on himself, he would have picked up all three without having to go through the decision of Choosing one only! (just joking) When going out to dine, I find it hard to decide which dishes to order (because each dish is a delicacy). I usually leave it to the good judgement of my long-time friend who takes pride and happily assumes the responsibility without a fuss. There are people who do not put themselves through the trouble of exercising a choice as they pick both the alternatives, a ras malai and moong dal halwa, not one. The underlying thought is that one is supposed to make a decision at every moment of his or her life. Such decisions are not critical enough and one can go wrong with them without suffering much of a loss. Such decisions can be revoked or overturned the next time when you go shopping or dine subsequently. 

How do you make the right choice? Which one should I choose? I believe, there is a simple and clear approach to decision making. Whenever you find yourselves vacillating between the choices presented before you, all you have to do is research all of them thoroughly. Seek as much information as you can from all sources either online or offline. You may need to corroborate the claims made by the proponents of these choices. You may use this scheme when choosing between two seemingly equally good things. For example, when deciding between two universities for your child, you might want each university to counsel you and your ward but you should also find a way to corroborate the claims made by the individual representatives. Similarly, when choosing between two candidates during election time, you would do well to check out their antecedents, past body of social work over a number of years and issues of personal turpitude, if any. If you wish to buy a laptop computer you should not just blindly agree to buy a particular Brand or a model basis their claims in the advertisement. These are the best of times that we live in where every bit of information is available on the internet. The problem boils down to one of spending enough time and checking authentic data sources that dole out genuine information about the item that you intend buying. Do pay enough attention to customer feedback regarding the operation of the gadget. It is appropriate to mention a personal experience here that will elucidate the point appropriately. I wanted to buy a dish washer for my home. While I was researching the net, I found two good machines of two different brands. Both were nice-looking and their looks pleased me much. Their price was also in the affordable range.

Now the real moment came that I dreaded the most, I had to choose one among them. I did not feel confident enough to pick one. I knew I would run the risk of making a wrong choice and getting stuck with it for a long time. Good sense prevailed over me and I thought I should speak to someone about his or her personal experience of using the product. So, I saved the search information and the links as well, and took some screen shots of the appropriate pages. The next day I spoke to a few friends of mine to learn about their experience of using the product. I came to know that the brand A does not manufacture the parts locally and are sourced from overseas. Consequently, it takes over a month to replace the parts in case they get damaged or spoilt. While brand B has no such problem. The next day I even checked some genuine online reviews that just clinched the deal in favour of brand B. If I just went by the price tag and the looks, I might have made a wrong decision of choosing brand A. Another good thing was that I waited till I had done my homework completely, I did not hurry through my purchase.

[ Also Read: A matter of perception – All that glitters is not Gold ]

Make a well-informed decision and save yourself from all the hassles of getting it wrong.