What Twixter’s Fear #1: Decision-Making
If there is one thing that makes people hesitate about “growing up” it is the fear of making decisions—big decisions. You no longer agonize over which backyard critter to bring to your class’ “Show and Tell”, but instead find yourself faced with potentially life-altering decisions such as what profession to pursue and what city to live in.
Being able to make wise choices when encountering important decisions is a big part of what makes you a mature and developed grown-up
Decisions, decisions…
What important decision have you had to make lately? Would you say you’ve made it wisely?
At the University of Minnesota, it was determined that all people make anywhere from 300 to 1,700 decisions daily. These range from no-brainers—such as, “Should I eat breakfast today?”—to more substantial ones like, “Should I ask her to marry me?”
Every person has his or her own approach to making choices. Different factors play a role in decision-making:
- a person’s values,
- beliefs about themselves,
- beliefs about others, and
- their perception of the world
All of these will influence the path they choose. As well, past experiences will also affect our decision-making.
We will generally avoid repeating mistakes—even more so if we’ve seen someone whom we’re close to suffer the consequences of a bad choice. We will be cautious to reduce the likelihood of duplicating our family or friends’ mistakes. This is especially true for twixters.
What Twixter’s Fear #2: Making Mistakes
When it comes to reluctance in making choices, many twixters are indecisive and commitment-shy for good reason.
They’ve witnessed the long-term negative effects of some of their parents’ choices. They’ve seen terminated careers, failed marriages, and harmful parental addictions.
The following blog response expresses a young man’s outlook on life choices, particularly parenting, as being a product of observing the role models in his life. Here are his thoughts:
“I don't think that a lot of men today understand the responsibilities and obligations of fatherhood (neither do most mothers). These are more good reasons that we should learn from our parents' mistakes, and wait until later in life to get married and have children. In my eyes, after so many parents have done their jobs so poorly, a little caution should be in order for us before we jump into the same situation. So few of us have had good role models in this regard.” – Aaron
It’s easy to become disillusioned with a goal after we’ve seen it fail in the lives of others— especially parents and family members.
Since people are bound to make mistakes on occasion, looking to others to provide a prototype for successful decision-making will prove unreliable. And, as confident as we might be in our own decision-making strategies, we don’t have a perfect track record either.
The Twixter-Approach to Life... 1.2.3.4.
Bea is an English student who by no means has the whole twixter thing figured out. She loves reading anything that's not assigned for homework, skiing, taking nature walks, and playing with Stormy, her hopelessly-untrained Siberian Husky. Copyright © iamnext.com 2005. May not be reprinted without permission.
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