How can we make the best of life? – Psychology Today
Click here to read the ORIGINAL ARTICLE: “What Are Life’s Biggest Decisions?”
By Adrian R. Camilleri Ph.D. January 31, 2021. Reviewed by Gary Drevitch, as published in Psychology Today.
As stated in the article, “New research reveals life’s most common big decisions.”
We call them “big” decisions. When outcomes can have a significant or long-term impact on us, or others.
It is wise to get prepared. But, what will those big decisions be?
Most of us try to solve common and frequent problems:
- What should I learn? What should my education be like?
- What type of work should I do?
- Where should I live?
- How may I build my own family?
What are the most frequent life decisions
In the article, Mr. Camilleri identifies “nine different super-categories and fifty-eight different sub-categories.”
The super-categories were: Career, Education, Family, Finances, Relationships, Relocation, Self-Destruction, Self-Development, and Other. Look at the figure in the article (click here) to see the full list of sub-categories
The author further describes “the 20 most common big life decisions among all respondents”. I will show here some of those decisions. To see the full list, as well as “the percentage of respondents mentioning that decision at least once”, click here:
- Start a new job/position
- Get married
- Pursue a degree
- Have/adopt a child
- Buy a home
- Quit a job/position
- Move to a new state
- Choose where to study
- Get divorced
- Other family decisions
- Other education-related decisions
- Buy something
- Get a pet
- Begin a romantic relationship
- End romantic relationship
- Move to a new city
- Make a decision for your child
- Start a new business
The most important life decisions
Another question we should be interested in refers to the relative importance of these decisions. In the survey, the author of the article also asked respondents to rate how big the decision felt at the time, and the most important decisions apparently are:
- If he/she should get divorced
- Whether to have/adopt a child
- If he/she should get married
- Moving to a new geographic location
- Making a decision for their child
- Buying a new home
- Whether to end a romantic relationship
- Other family decisions
See the original article for more details.
