Head versus Heart

I typically to take a long time to make decisions. I explain it to myself as procrastination with a hint of extreme thoughtfulness. After all, you're supposed to weigh the pros and cons of a decision before making it, right? Make a chart and start listing your thoughts in either the "pro" column or the "con" column and then...ummm..I'm not sure what you do next. I've never actually gotten that far.

Most decisions I make seem to be based on what "feels right." In fact, on all the personality tests I've taken I score very high on the feeling scale versus the thinking scale. That doesn't mean I'm not thinking about pros and cons and logic when I make decisions. It just means that I give my heart more weight than my brain.

The consequence of this is that when you ask me to explain a decision I can sometimes have a hard time getting out words that make sense. "It just seemed right." doesn't always cut it, even if that's the most honest answer. And "because" can seem rude or dismissive when I really don't intend that.

There are lots of decisions that I talk out in front of other people like my husband, my parents, or a friend. Often these are pretty one-way conversations with me really just thinking out loud. I've got good people in my life who can ask good questions to help me ferret out the core of a problem or decision, but more often that not I end up going with what felt right in the beginning.

I know plenty of people who make decisions pretty rationally. They make the charts. They run the numbers. They have concrete data to back up their decisions. If that works for you, great! I'm happy for you. I don't necessarily understand it, but I'm happy if you're happy.

How about you? Logic or emotion? Brains or heart? How do you make your decisions??


Welcome to a Secret Subject Swap. This week 11 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

My “Secret Subject” is: Are you the type of person who makes decisions based on logic or emotion? It was submitted by: http://batteredhope.blogspot.com
 
Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

Baking In A Tornado
Cognitive Script
The Blogging 911
The Bergham Chronicles
Southern Belle Charm
Bookworm in the Kitchen
Never Ever Give Up Hope 
TaylorLife
Sparkly Poetic Weirdo 
Climaxed