Minding my business according to urban dictionary definition is – ‘concern yourself with matters only pertaining to yourself.’ To wrap up this series it only seemed fitting to focus on the goal of self-esteem campaigns. Self-esteem campaigns have a positive reputation of advocating for inward focus and appreciation – minding your business. This is an important focus as internal self affirmation and confidence in yourself allows for individual growth, joy and productivity to shine through. Being confident in making decisions for yourself is a self-esteem catalyst.

When you mind your own business you quickly realise that ownership of your choices is totally in your hands. Things happen to you but every experience may have a different outcome based on how you decide to respond. Kinda places a lot of emphasis on the importance of practicing the skill of conscious decision making. Upon researching decision making for this article, I searched for TED talks to give me an idea about effective decision making. One speaker made reference to this sobering  quote by Søren Kierkegaard “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards” this quote made me feel very vulnerable because in essences it proclaims that; we conclude and learn from past experience but are only given the opportunity to live in real time without expertise about each moment.

The summary of the TED talks  echoed that decisions are difficult to make predominantly because we don’t know the outcome. The one speaker postulated 3 ways of more effective decisions making: 

1. Challenge the constraints 
2. Embracing a premortem of outcomes
3. Checking the basics 

Another speaker focussed on 3 reasons why decision making is difficult,

1. Preparing for problems
2. Fear of regret
3. Timing

What both talks encapsulated is the enigma of decision making – which is the fear of the unknown.

Dale Carnegie said, “You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.” So fear is all in the mind first, so that’s where we should start to deal with the issue. Life as an overthinker is exhausting  because you live a moment multiple times – before it actually happens, when it happens and after it happens. When we are faced with choices we rely on archived memories and outcomes of similar choices, that repetition is a confidence stimulus. When we practice the skill of decision making it makes it easier to keep making decisions. 

The art of making conscious choices and not letting life just happen to you is a very important exercise. Having options and choice is a powerful privilege. Moreover; in the realm of health and self-care, what you choose for your body is a valuable and vital tool for a good life. We should not delegate or fear the power of decision making but we should aim to practice the skill of healthy decision making more confidently over and over again – Minding your business actively.

References:                                                                                       

1.Image – https://pin.it/4jF811E 

2. Video 1 –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7Jnmi2BkS8&ab_channel=TEDxTalks 

3. Video 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkyzYjPuxK8&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

Ubusha Bami futhi yimi lo – My youth and this is me! © 17 October 2022