Anxiety

Indecisiveness

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The one constant of human existence is that it’s always changing. Some of these changes are outside of our control while others are the direct result of our thoughts and actions. Indecisiveness is a psychological strategy designed to postpone that feeling of existential anxiety that goes along with becoming aware of the responsibility for a decision that, one way or the other, will have an impact on the course of your life.

If we could be and do everything at once existential anxiety wouldn’t accompany the decisions we make, but unfortunately in human life alternatives exclude, meaning one course of action precludes every other possible course of action. Many people rationalize their indecisiveness as just doing the responsible thing, taking plenty of time in order to make sure they make the best decision for themselves, but in reality it’s all about that paralyzing anxiety, the awareness that all of the other possible paths will disappear into thin air the moment you take one of them.

If you frequently find yourself struggling with indecisiveness in your life, an insight that might help you is that making no choice is still making a choice, it’s just the choice to do nothing. In this sense it’s impossible to escape the burden of responsibility. Doing nothing is still doing something. And in the meantime life passes you by and you miss those valuable moments of self-actualization that you could be using to move closer to your goals if you were just to decide what those goals are.