Transcriber: sepsa Alhaj Yousef Reviewer: Rania Mustafa
I watched this show called The Good Place,
and there's this character who resonated with me.
His name is Chidi Anagonye played by the talented actor
William Jackson Harper.
Chidi’s pursuit of what would be right
and his inability to make decisions out of the fear of making the wrong choice
caused incredible suffering for all those around him.
And eventually, his inability to decide what bar to go to with his friends
led to him being crushed to death by a falling air conditioner.
After watching Chidi’s tragic indecisiveness story,
I learned that the word “tomorrow”
was invented for indecisive people and children.
I’m pretty sure we’ve all had mind aching experience
where we had to pick a decision
and no matter what decision you choose,
it seemed like we made the wrong one yet again.
Questions like: What should I wear today?
Should I have coffee or tea for breakfast?
Should I go out tonight?
Or should I post this picture on Instagram?
can ruin an indecisive person’s day,
and indecisive person is defined as a person who is unable to make decisions.
And when they do finally make a decision,
they’re not confident about it
and often change their mind.
Does this sound like something you suffer from?
Well, I do, too.
I remember taking a selfie and it had two options;
Agree or disagree?
The question being asked was,
do you think 30 minutes is long enough?
At first I thought, Yes.
I do think 30 minutes is long enough,
so I ticked agree.
But then I thought to myself ‘wait’.
I don't think 30 minutes is long enough,
so I rubbed out the agree and picked disagree.
But then I realized I actually don’t think 30 minutes is long enough,
so I rubbed out the disagree
and was left without an answer.
It reached a point where I had to ask my teacher
if I could add another option that was in between
because deciding to what extent I agree or disagree
was very difficult for me.
He refused, so I asked him
‘Sir, how do you do within decisiveness?’
And he said, and I quote, “just decide”
as if it were that easy and if it was,
and if it was,
I wouldn't be talking to all of you here today.
I began to realize a pattern in my behavior.
The first thing was that
I had to ask other people for their opinions on a decision.
The second thing was that
I was OK with not making a decision at the end of the day,
but and I was OK with not making a decision
at the end of of the day.
And that’s the stress was too much for me to handle
that I wouldn’t make a decision.
What really fascinated me that day
was how eager my classmates were
to learn the answer to that question.
It occurred to me that I was not the only one
who dealt with this mind boggling experience
and that I wasn’t alone.
I realized I had to embrace the fact that there are no wrong answers
and that it’s difficult,
if not impossible, to pick a decision based on hypothetical information.
Making imaginary decisions is not only difficult,
but it is an incredible waste of time.
Let’s say I asked you guys
“where do you want to travel to the most?”
I mean, half of us would say
“Italy, Greece or Japan,”
but to the other half would think,
“Oh, Australia looks amazing, but isn’t it too hot?”
or “I’d love to go to London, but doesn’t rain a lot?”
Now.
This is where I tell you the odds of indecisiveness comes in.
When you think too long and hard on decisions,
the outcome may be the right one for you.
This gives you time to explore and try out new things
while subconsciously ticking off the things
that inhibit you from making a decision.
Students like you and I can use this when picking off future careers
as we start the
“What Do You Want to do in the future?” conversations so early.
Indecision becomes decision with time,
and I can guarantee you that millions of people suffer from this,
so we are not alone in this.
Of course, it's better said than done,
but using the power of indecisiveness to your advantage,
you can make your life a little more stress free.
Thank you.