Decisions, decisions

I recently came across an article posted by the APA on the impact of second-guessing on mental health.  Published in Personality and Individual Differences  in 2003, the study linked self-doubt with a number of problems including depression, anxiety, mood swings, and low self-esteem.

Even if you don't spend the same amount of time agonizing over choices as many of the more severely doubtful subjects in this study, how much of your life do you think you've put into weighing decisions such as "chocolate ice cream or fruit," "regular unleaded or super," "strappy sandals for comfort or red heels for maximum calf-appeal?"  Would it be hours or days, even?

What is ultimately so important about decision-making and our sense of entitlement to choice?  Control and predictability.  At least that's one theory.  Whether it be melon or mate selection, each choice gets us closer to a preferred reality--the most satisfying fruit experience in the case of the melon, our life's happiness in the case of the mate.  We have come to believe that our well-being, meaning, and happiness are the result of a series of correct or incorrect choices and perhaps in that assumption, there's room for healthy doubt.

  If we truly step back from our daily lives, we would see innumerable factors beyond our own power of choice, moving us forward.  Think of how many variables impacted you opening this webpage, traffic allowed you to get home in time to have 5 extra minutes to yourself, you misspelled the link you were trying to type and ended up here, and on and on.  Maybe it's our belief in the power of our choices to make or break our happiness that is lurking beneath our indecision.

A proverb illustrates the point nicely.  We have no problem walking a straight line on the flat, even ground.  When we must walk this line on the edge of a great cliff, our doubt and fear of the fall compromise our balance though the line itself has not changed.