How to Make a Decision About the Coming School Year

Decisions don’t take weeks to make. They take a split-second. However, we often add a lot of time to our decision-making before and after the decision is made.

Here are 4 steps to minimize the stress of making a decision:

1-Give yourself a deadline, the sooner the better. You want to have just enough time to do meaningful research, but not enough time to get lost in the minutia of information and every other person’s opinion. It just adds confusion.

2-Trust your intuition. We have so much information, so many opinions at our fingertips, that it’s really difficult to hear our own heart and mind. Be still. What are your heart and mind telling you? I would spend as much time, if not more,  writing down your own thoughts and feelings about the decision than time researching other people’s thoughts and feelings. One tip: when you’re trying to hear your heart and mind, check to make sure it is YOUR heart and mind, and not your dad’s voice, your friend’s voice, or someone else’s. Take slow deep breaths, thank the voices, and then quiet them to hear your own.

3-Promise to be kind to yourself, no matter the outcome. One of the reasons it can be so scary to make decisions is because we know if things don’t go the way we had planned, we are going to berate ourselves on the other side. You are a human, doing your best, and that is good enough. When things don’t go the way you planned, you can decide they went the way they were supposed to. Really challenge your brain to see how that is true.

4-Give yourself another deadline. Once you’ve made your decision, stand by it for a certain period of time. For example: we will do distance learning until January, then reassess. When your brain wants to question your decision (which it will), remind your brain you are not entertaining the decision again until January.

I have full faith in you that you’ll make a decision that will give you the exact experiences you and your child need at this time.

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