Who Influences Your Day To Day Choices?

                                             Image:Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

We make choices every day, some of them big and some small. We make choices about many different things, what food and how much to eat, how to spend our time, what to do in our spare time, what time to go to bed, what sort of exercise to participate in, which people to spend time with, how to interact with others, who to vote for, whether to have pets, how much money to spend, which companies to buy from, what to spend money on and how to treat the environment. 

As children we often do as we are told or follow the example set by the rest of the family. During the teenage years some rebel and do the opposite.  Later in life we start to actively make more choices based on our personal values.

As an adult we may be influenced by -

• our family
• our job
• work mates and colleagues
• friends
• specific groups we belong to
• what we expect of ourselves
• what we think others expect of us
• what we think others need from us
• what we think we should do
• the media
• advertising
• books we read

Never before has there been so much information readily available which has a part to play in the decisions we make. There are also more things to make choices about, for example there are many more products available in a modern supermarket than in the grocery store of yesteryear.

Image:Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Sometimes it is difficult to know if the things we hear, see or read are indeed accurate and true. Are they based on research and if so, how thorough was that research? How many people were involved in the studies? What questions were asked? What was measured and were the results double-checked? Could the research have been biased? Could the results that have been made public be only part of the story? 

How do you decide who to vote for at election time? Do you believe what a party says it will do if elected? How much of what your local candidate says do you believe? What is truth?

These days there is so much information available and it can be overwhelming. Ideas change with new findings and in response to changing societal values. There is much conflicting information and many different opinions.

When I am passing on ideas to others I tend to use phrases such as 'I have read', 'It seems likely' or 'A study showed' rather than making definite statements. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by information overload but  reassure myself that I am making the best decisions I can based on the information available to me at the present time.