Tag / decision making

by Halley

Love / Interest Is Not Enough

One of the hardest things I had to learn about relationships was love is not enough. Like many other lessons this one seems painfully obvious once learned, but not at all otherwise. After all, “Love is all you need” sounds much more romantic. I still remember the way I struggled with “defining” love as a teenager and in my early 20s. At the height of each new relationship I was convinced that I had finally figured out what love really was, only to find myself back at square 1 when it ended. After a few rounds I finally gave up on the notion of “one true meaning of love” and settled for the belief that it will probably keep evolving as I kept learning. Underlying my search for the “true meaning of love”, I think, was this mistaken belief that true love meant forever, that love was both necessary and sufficient for a relationship to work out. It took more than a decade and a handful of break-ups for me to realize how misleading that belief was. Continue reading →

by Halley

How to make hard decisions

Hard decisions are hard for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s a choice between two options that are equally appealing. Other times it’s the opposite: you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Sometimes they are hard because the stakes are so high and there doesn’t seem to be room for mistakes. Other times you feel overwhelmed by the uncertainties and risks. Often it’s some combination of all of the above.

I have been giving this a lot of thoughts lately, probably because my husband and I have had to make some hard decisions, and I have also seen some of my friends and family members going through similar struggles. Maybe it’s the life stage my peers and I are in (late 20s to early 30s) that presents us with a lot of these hard decisions, or maybe it’s just life itself. My guess is 20s is when most people start to make some hard decisions, and it doesn’t really stop from there. Hopefully as people grow and learn they become better at making the hard decisions, but I’m not sure if they ever really get “easier” per se.

Reflecting upon these hard decisions, I have come up with some insights to share:

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