We agonize about getting our decisions “right.” When we do this, we show anxiety about the future.

If we’re in the middle of deciding, then it isn’t in the future. It’s something happening right now.

But once it’s decided, it is no longer present. It immediately becomes the past.

The problem is that usually the stuff we’re making decisions about can’t be left in the past. Especially when we speak over and over about how “right” that decision was.

The real reason we agonize over getting decisions “right” is because we know deep down that we aren’t, in fact, dealing with something that can be relegated to the past. Most difficult decisions remain long after we make them.

Some decisions are about how we deal with other people. These can’t ever be put in the past because we’re talking about a person’s life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Their actions may now be in the past, but they have a future. And our present decision likely carries recurring action.

When I keep hearing from multiple people about how a decision was “right”, that is usually because a decision was made, but the problem remains.