Using Your Choices to Help You

Written By Colēgia

There are many different routes we can take both in our lives and our education and each of them offer unique challenges to overcome. Your choices influence what route you will take and this can empower you to make positive changes. Today we want to discuss how you can use your choices to help you.

Understanding Our Biases

Before we delve into choices we need to understand one helpful concept known as bias. Bias is defined as “the inclination for or against something.” This has a tendency to make our choices based on mental shortcuts or lack of information known as “heuristic thinking.” The problem with this is that it usually doesn't depict an accurate image of either the challenge or task at hand and can leave us being judgmental. While personal experience can be helpful for things, oftentimes it is usually used best in conjunction with education to back it up. A good example of this is personal experience with groups versus research on how to be more effective in groups. While we can pass by with minimal effort, oftentimes this choice can lead to less effectiveness overall. Using research as a means of detecting our own biases and then trying to work on them can make our decisions more informed.

“While personal experience can be helpful for things, oftentimes it is usually used best in conjunction with education to back it up.”

Re-frame Your Choices

Choices can be complicated as we might be overwhelmed with how many options we have. Some challenges are harder to break down and require more thought behind them. One helpful thing we can do is to re-frame how we see both challenges and our choices. This is good as it lets us see things from a different perspective. Different viewpoints are needed as they can let us see things from beyond how we initially viewed them and it can foster other good qualities as well. One technique that can help is viewing a situation from a logical, emotional, and ethical perspective. A logical point of view will let you see things more objectively and rationally which is good for choices that require that kind of critical eye such as paying for tuition. An emotional point of view is best used in areas such as our relationships where we need to heavily consider how both parties feel. An ethical point of view is best used for more serious choices that affect the well-being of yourself and others.

“Different viewpoints are needed as they can let us see things from beyond how we initially viewed them and it can foster other good qualities as well.”

Remember That How You React is a Choice

While it may be easy to assume that we may not always have a choice, one thing that is under our control is how we choose to react. Some things are circumstance that we have no bearing over such as when a pop quiz happens but we can embrace these things with an open mind. Being mindful of how we feel is good as we can handle unexpected things when we are in a better frame of mind. Consciously choosing to take care of ourselves by eating and sleeping well, along with taking care of our mental health can make all the difference, and that's something that is under our control.

Colēgia

Colēgia

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