Choosing or Deciding?

When you’re faced with making a decision, do you decide what to do or do you choose what to do? A client and I just had a great discussion about the difference between deciding and choosing.

We came to the conclusion that most of the time when we make a choice, we are making that choice from a very limited number of options - often times it’s just A or B, and sometimes there is a C thrown in for good measure. When we make our choice from a small pool of options, that is making a decision, or deciding. However, if we take the time to look outside the box and access as many options as possible before making our choice, we are then proactively choosing what to do.

This process of expanding our options puts the power back into our hands. We are no longer limited by the obvious and worn out choices in front of us. We can get much more creative in our solution. Although it can be uncomfortable to deal with so many different possibilities, if we take the time to truly sort through them and figure out which one makes the best sense for us in that situation, we will be much happier with the long-term outcome.

The next time you have a decision to make, ask yourself what your true choice would be. It is very likely that answer will not be among the given options of A, B or C. Push yourself to look beyond the obvious and see what happens. There may be a whole new set of possibilities out there just waiting for you!


Courage is not the lack of fear. It is acting in spite of it.
Mark Twain