At the root of indecision is usually a belief, or a set of beliefs, that constrain and confound you. These beliefs are not about the decision that you're making. Instead, they are beliefs about your decision-making process. Yup, we are about to get meta. 

One belief that you might have when making a big decision is that you must avoid the negative consequences of a wrong decision. And you're probably very good at predicting all of those consequences. A career decision might prompt more questions than the job interview itself. What if I hate the job? What if the company culture sucks? What if the company tanks and I get laid off in six months? These non-stop thoughts lead to non-stop anxiety and non-stop procrastination. A previous post on this blog provides some tips that might help with such thoughts.

A second belief that you might hold about your decision-making is that the outcome has to be perfect. You tell yourself that you must work for the perfect company—a job at The Bank of Evil or LexCorp just won't cut it. The antidote to this is to accept that no decision is perfect, and few are permanent. Instead of striving to make the perfect decision, learn to tolerate uncertainty.

Now imagine that you're able to get your anxiety-induced thought loop under control. And you have learned to sip a bit of uncertainty now and then. Yet, you still find yourself swirling around a big decision. What do you do now?

Practical Tips  For Making Big Decisions

Let's say that the choice before you is: should I choose a job that has higher earning potential or one that gives me more work-life balance? One approach to deciding involves a two-step process guided by your values: 

1. List your values

2. Rank your values 

List Your Values

Values are beliefs about what is important to you and gives meaning to your life. Clarify your values by writing them down, even if you have done so before. Continuing to rely on outdated values is like dressing for today based on yesterday's weather report. Be sure to include all of your values, not just the ones related to your current decision.

Rank Your Values

Next, you'll want to take one more step: rank your values in order of importance. And no copping out by giving some values equal rankings. When you make a decision, you will be making trade-offs. Ranking your values ensures that the trade-offs are in line with what is most important to you. 

The table below provides an example of values that might be relevant to someone making a job decision. Note that some of the values are only indirectly related to the job choice itself.

When making the job choice presented above, the act of ranking makes it clear that a high-paying job helps you to live in line with your most important value, even though money ranked the lowest in your list of values. 

And perhaps this value of taking care of your parents was not an issue 10 years ago when your parents were younger and healthier. This underscores the importance of periodically reviewing your values.

Conclusion

"Let your values guide you in decision-making" is more than just a phrase you'd expect to hear from a yoga instructor trying to teach you stress management. Focusing on your values is a practical way to make hard decisions. But what if you struggle with not just the big decisions, but the small daily ones too? If that's the case, a therapist might be able to help you identify other factors that could help make decision-making easier. And if committing to therapy seems like a hard decision to make, start with just 20 minutes for a consultation, no commitment, to see whether therapy is right for you.

References

Beck, J. S. (2020). Cognitive behavior therapy: Basics and beyond. Guilford Publications.

Schonberg, S. (n.d.). Should I do this or should I do that?: CBT for indecision. Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Retrieved October 22, 2025, from https://beckinstitute.org/blog/should-i-do-this-or-should-i-do-that-cbt-for-indecision/

The Psychology of Worry

Preparing for future challenges is a useful skill. That ability helped our ancestors store food to survive winter, in a world that didn't have supermarkets and Uber Eats. And the ability to predict when your bank account will hit zero helps you to consider a supermarket trip, instead of ordering delivery for the 30th time this week.

However, focusing too much on negative predictions about the future can lead to feelings of stress and anxiety. In the case of AI, worrying about what will happen next will compound your anxiety with each press release from OpenAI. So what can you do instead? 

Practical Tips for Managing Worry

The first thing to be aware of is that mentally preparing for the loss of your job can make that anxiety worse. You might want to believe that visualising the job apocalypse is like Sarah Conner in the movie The Terminator doing push-ups and getting ripped. But Sarah Conner actually did those push-ups, she didn't just imagine them. Pay attention to when you slip into mental push-up mode and try one of the following instead:

1. Consider more than just the worst case.

2. Make reasonable preparations for likely scenarios.

3. Tolerate the anxiety.

Best, Worst, and Most Likely

One of the traps of anxiety is that it typically leads you to focus on the worst case scenario. You imagine the computer at work becoming sentient and doing the work without you. Your anxiety spikes when you think about it. It probably spiked when you read that sentence (sorry!). That's the worst case scenario. 

To get that anxiety back under control, consider the best case scenario instead: AI never gets smart enough to reliably do your job. You probably feel a brief respite. But to make it last, consider the most likely scenario.

So what's a likely scenario? If you look at the past, you can find examples of game-changing technologies that affected entire industries. Computers with word processors (think Microsoft Word or Google Docs) eliminated the jobs of professional typists decades ago. But many of those same typists got computer training and found new jobs. AI might lead to widespread changes to various industries, and you might also have an opportunity to retrain and keep your job.

Real World Preparation

If there are opportunities to keep your job, it will take work on your part to seize them. But instead of merely imagining what opportunities might exist, do some actual research to identify concrete steps. For example, can you use AI to become even better at your job? Can you lead projects to responsibly and ethically use AI in your company? If you are leading the AI charge, you are less likely to find yourself out of a job if your company reduces the workforce. Your efforts to upskill are far more productive than hours spent worrying and researching backyard bunkers for the AI apocalypse.

Tolerating Uncertainty

While it is important to make preparations for the future, it is also important to accept that you don't have a crystal ball. You might be tempted to go down a research rabbit hole, preparing for multiple outcomes. This is your anxiety trying to keep itself fed after you cut off its daily supply of worrying. Anxiety demands certainty even more than Toronto restaurants demand 18% tips. The antidote is just to accept it (the anxiety, not the 18% tip). Tolerating the discomfort that comes with not knowing the future will help to reduce the desire for certainty, and will starve your anxiety.

Conclusion 

The kind of future that AI will create in the workplace is anyone's guess. But don't waste time guessing. There are people that get paid to do that, so why do it for free? Instead, consider realistic outcomes and do as much as you can to prepare. Then tell your anxiety that you have done all you can and that it should give you a break, or you will leave it outside the bunker if there ever is an AI apocalypse. And if that doesn't work, book a free consultation session to get some professional help.

References 

Pine, D. S., Wise, S. P., & Murray, E. A. (2021). Evolution, emotion, and episodic engagement. American Journal of Psychiatry, 178(8), 701-714.

New Zealand Railways. (1959). Head Office typists room, New Zealand Railways, 1959 [Photograph]. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Head_Office_typists_room,_New_Zealand_Railways,_1959_(25557790294).jpg

Beck, J. S., & Hindman, R. (n.d.). Why anxiety persists. Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Retrieved October 22, 2025, from https://beckinstitute.org/blog/why-anxiety-persists/

The Psychology of Anxiety

Practical CBT Techniques for Managing Anxiety

Put Your Anxiety on Trial

Prediction: I'm going to bomb the presentation and get fired

Verdict: I don't like doing presentations, but I will probably be ok and I'm not likely to be fired.

Talk Yourself Down

Control Your Breathing

Conclusion

References