Pause to Evaluate the Important Questions and Decisions

Pause to Evaluate the Important Questions and Decisions. Photo courtesy of Krakenimages.com/stock.adobe.com.

All my life I've been searching for the answers to life's greatest questions: Why am I here? What should I do with my life? What's the purpose to all this? I'm sure you have asked yourself the same questions as well. Sadly, I don't have the answers, and I'm still searching for those answers myself.

I've read so many personal development books and taken numerous courses thinking, "This one will be the one that fixes me for good." I don't think that is necessarily wrong, but we are constantly striving for more. Even if we do fix ourselves or find that perfect answer, then we grow as human beings and will need more answers. It's cliche, but it's true: We will never be fixed because we are always growing and evolving as people.

Additionally, we have so many choices and decisions on a daily basis that shape who we are in any given moment that all your hard work can be thrown away in an instant. No matter how many books you've read, courses you've attended, or positive choices you have made in 1 day or throughout your entire life, sometimes it can come down to just 1 good or bad decision.

I don't want to be so life and death because not all decisions are that dire. However, when you accumulate a string of bad decisions together, they can lead you to a place you never thought you would end up.

When life is truly compressed down, it all comes down to 2 things:

1. The questions we ask ourselves
2. The decisions we make from those questions

That's it.

If you look back at every single good or bad decision you have ever made in you entire life, it came down to these 2 factors. From something as small as whether you should eat another cookie or something as big as choosing the person you want to marry.

Sure, there are outside factors such as advice from friends and family or thing outside of your control. You will still ask yourself questions and make decisions based on those questions.

If you ask yourself terrible questions, odds are you will get terrible answers and end up making a terrible decision. If you ask yourself, "Why did they leave me?" or "What's the purpose of living without this person?" then the odds are you will not make a great decision from these questions.

Sometimes the best we can hope for is a pause between the questions we ask ourselves and the decision we end up making. I always thought I would be fixed or cured after doing all my personal development. However, I really believe all that work can sometimes come down to a pause.

We all want to be perfect and never screw up, but that isn't realistic. even some of the greatest men and women I know still make bad decisions on a daily basis. It's a constant grind every single day to ask yourself better questions, then make better decisions with those questions. I think all of our hard work and dedication to growing as a person ultimately leads to pauses in between the questions and decisions.

A pause just long enough to make sure that is really what I want to do. A pause to ask myself a better questions and ultimately make a better decisions. A pause to not make that huge mistake that can change the course of my life. A pause to confirm I'm making the right decision and it's not based solely on my emotions in that moment. A pause to just take a breath and enjoy the moment versus rushing into something.

That's it.

That may seem oversimplified, but sometimes all you need is a small moment between the questions and the decisions you make. We all want these profound truths and strategies for growth and personal development. I think most of us believe that will lead to a perfectly self-actualized human being who will never mess up and will live in harmony on a daily basis. Maybe those people exist, but I'm not one of them. I screw up all the time.

I have noticed when I ask myself better questions, take a beat in between, then make my decision, my day goes much smoother. I want to believe that it's because I've done all this work on myself and read all these books, and that is definitely a factor. However, I believe all of that leads up to 1 thing: Taking a pause.