Do you need to make a major life-decision? It’s highly likely that you’re pretty anxious about it. After all a major life decision is one that is likely to change you and your circumstances quite dramatically. It’ll shape and affect who you are, how you see the world and how you see yourself.

The anxiety arrives when you realise that most major life decisions have so many complex outcomes that you are just unable to accurately weigh up the benefits to the trade-offs. So how do you make these big decisions without the measuring?

You need to focus on principles and values. One thing I’ve learnt so far is that your principles and values don’t change much, they can, but its slow. Glacial in fact. I’ve recently made a major life decision to relocate from Johannesburg to Cape Town and I made the decision wholly based on principles and values telling myself that the actual day-to-day and financial consequences will come second. Here are the principles and values on which I made that decision:

Principles:

1. Live as fully as possible and don’t settle for a life of half measures
2. Don’t waste precious time, we have so little to start off with
3. Only boldness can deliver us from fear

Values:

1. Family relationships
2. The Ocean (its in my blood)
3. Liberal minded people

Now there are a whole bunch of principles and values (those certainly aren’t my only ones) and everyone has a different mixture of them. This post is not about what your principles and values should be (that’s you journey) but rather that you base your major life decisions on them so that whatever the outcome the decision sits well with you, gives you strength and builds you as a person.

I’d love to hear about your principles and values and how they’ve helped you make or deal with major life decisions and changes so let me know in the comments below!