3 Steps for Anxiety Free Decision Making

Me and my girls!

What if you’ve spent a ton of time heading down the road to your awesome new promotion, house or relationship when you realize it’s going south fast?

Do you keep your head down, stay on track and ignore the whisper that’s telling you something is wrong?

Or do you cut your losses and come up with a new game plan?

This was me last Saturday.

My daughter, Maya, decided after 9 months of college planning, to scrap her first choice school and begin at square one AGAIN.

She explained that the reality of living in Southern Cal and going to that school didn't match her fantasy of it. In other words, what she thought is was and what it actually was, were two very different things.

As her mom, I was both proud of her and angsty. Because now we had more work to do.

So here’s what we did:

1. Be Willing to Re-Evaluate

Rather than being resolute about sticking to a game plan, allow yourself to consider alternatives. Willingness opens the door to sight, to viewing something with fresh eyes, to the possibility of new opportunities.

You may decide not to go ahead with a new plan, but having the willingness to at least look gives you options and helps you to not feel trapped.

2. Explore Your Options

Give yourself time and space for this part.

Start drawing (even if it’s just a figure 8) or go for a walk so you can access your right brain. This will allow your creativity to flow and help you come up with lots of ideas.

Write every idea down even if it sounds crazy!

3. Look at the Cold Hard Facts

Now it’s time to get clear on your priorities. Take your list of options and evaluate each one. Use your analytical brain for this task.

  • What happens if you stay on the original course?
  • Where do your other paths lead?

Now ask yourself: What do YOU really want?

In other words, what’s the most important thing for you? Is it square footage? Geography? Paycheck? Commonalities?

Make a list of the pros and cons for each viable possibility.

When you're done, it's time to take action. This is key to combatting stress and anxiety. Getting clear and then moving forward is empowering. Plus now you know exactly what you want and where to go!

Once you have a new plan, you can look back at that sidelining as a blessing. It allowed you to get super clear about exactly what you wanted and which direction to move in. Even if you do stay the original course, now you're even more sure why.

At a crossroads? Share your story with me below!

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