Top 5 Causes of Difficulty Making Decisions

Many times, the ability to face day-to-day challenges is not explained so much by knowledge, but by fluency when making decisions. That is why having problems in this regard can be a major obstacle when it comes to adapting to the environment, both professionally and personally.

Fortunately, with psychological support it is possible to overcome these kinds of problems, but to intervene in them helps a lot to understand their causes and triggers. Therefore, in this article we will do a review of the main causes of difficulty in making decisions.

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5 causes of decision-making difficulties

There are practically no problems of a psychological nature whose causes can be fully described in a brief list; moreover, the normal thing is that there are several of them interacting with each other. Therefore, what you will find below is mostly a summary of the causes of difficulties for make decisions that are very frequent, although keep in mind that some of them may overlap partially.

Of course, in the event that you are going to go to the psychologist because of problems related to decision-making and performance at face tasks and responsibilities in general, keep in mind that it is not necessary that you know in advance what exactly is happening to you. Part of the work of psychology professionals who treat patients is to study each specific case and find out the causes behind your discomfort.

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1. Extreme perfectionism

Perfectionism can have the opposite effect to the desired one, by paralyzing people, since many times they do not decide to take the step from ideas to practice.

The reason is that this would imply exposing the imperfections of the outlined plan, so they keep thinking about their project indefinitely. As a result, by the time they start what they want to do, they often no longer have enough time to do what they wanted to do in the first place, leading to frustration.

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2. Lack of assertiveness

Some decisions have to do with taking the step of communicating something uncomfortable or potentially confrontational to another person.: for example, that we have not yet started working on a project because we have not had time, that we want to break up with the couple, etc. Therefore, the lack of assertiveness is one of the possible causes of difficulties in reaching a final decision in the face of something that also involves others. In these cases, it is important to work on social skills and the management of fear of rejection.

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3. Dependence

Getting used to depending on another person is reflected in many ways in our way of thinking, behaving and feeling, and some of them are quite subtle.

For instance, In these kinds of situations, it is common not to feel good about any decision we make on our own, which encourages us to always ask for the guidance or opinion of that figure of reference. This not only limits our freedom, but also fuels the problem, as it makes deciding for ourselves even more rare.

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4. Psychological rumination

Psychological rumination consists of being unable to stop our "train of thoughts" when it brings to our mind again and again the same type of images, ideas, concerns... This is a phenomenon associated with intrusive thoughts and anxiety, since it is what stresses us the most that has a greater capacity to sneak into our lives without permission. consciousness.

Not knowing how to properly regulate psychological rumination makes many people start to wander and to notice how their mind "wanders" before reaching a firm conclusion about what they are thinking about.

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5. Poor handling of distractors

Although the causes of the difficulty in making decisions that we have seen so far are mainly introspective when be based on mental processes, we must not forget that the way in which we interact with the environment is also part of the psychology. In this sense, part of the problem may lie in the habit of working and making decisions in environments full of distracting elements.

Bearing in mind that evaluating between pros and cons to finally “take risks” by making a decision requires concentration, the place where we dedicate ourselves to carry out these activities greatly influences. In addition, in work situations it is usually common to always be in the same place when having to choose between different alternatives, so making small changes in that environment can make a difference in a quite remarkable way from the first week.

Are you interested in having professional psychological support?

If you want to have psychological assistance, I invite you to contact me.

I am an expert psychologist in the cognitive-behavioral intervention model and I serve adults and adolescents in areas such as improvement of emotional regulation, the adoption of better work habits, time management, techniques to mitigate stress and anxiety, and plus. The sessions can be done in person at my office in Madrid, or they can be done online by video call.