“My mother is not well and needs 24-hour care. We can hire a home nurse but it is not easy at home.”
“What is the hesitation about shifting her to a 24-hour care centre?”
“I am not sure about that. Is that the right thing to do? Would I be abandoning her if I did that?”
“You don’t have to regard it as a permanent decision. Think of it as a temporary decision. You can always reverse it if things are not comfortable”
“I never thought of it in that manner”
We all have to make many decisions in our daily life. Some are easy to make but when some of the decisions we need to make clash with our values we go on hesitating to make such decisions. In our mind, our decisions seem permanent and hence there is a great burden on us when we want to take a call.
When the marriage is not working, sending children to a hostel so that they can be saved from the daily fights, sending seniors in our homes to a senior care facility as we are not able to provide them with the best at home, Sending a pet to a pet care facility when things are overwhelming at home, engaging help at home in times of distress, hiring a cook when too many people are at home, Giving a shot at working after a hiatus, taking a break from working for others and so many such examples come to mind.
In each situation mentioned above, the situation demands us to think differently and the decision seems enormous to take. We don’t want to feel guilty about taking the decision. But then each of the decisions is reversible. They are not permanent decisions. When the situation changes we can revert to the original position or continue if the decision has worked out for all concerned.
When we are confronted with ambiguous situations instead of being paralyzed by the decision we have to make, if we regard the decision as temporary and explain to all others concerned too that it is temporary, we can move ahead with our decision more easily. If the decision is reversible then it is temporary. When we look deeply very few decisions we need to take are permanent decisions which require deeper thought but most decisions can be easily reversed if it does not work out. Regarding decisions as temporary eases the burden of decision-making.
