The two most consequential decisions you'll ever make in your life concern your choice of career and your choice of partner. Many of us happen to make these decisions in earnest -- at least for the first time -- when we're fairly young and lacking in life experience.  Perhaps we're just out of high school and we decide on law or pre-med as a major while embarking on a new relationship with someone who ostensibly has "long-term potential" written all over them. As we well know, though, life gives us many different twists and turns, sometimes veering us in directions we never could have imagined.  Events such as these can affect our life trajectory: Going away for college A death in the family  A break-up Switching jobs or careers  Layoffs Starting a business Moving to a new city  Getting married Having kids Illness  But there's no doubt that the decisions we make in our professional and love lives figure prominently in our life satisfaction, or lack thereof....

Human beings have a tendency to stick it out with costly decisions, and it can be attributed directly to the sunk cost fallacy. According to this psychological concept, the more we invest -- whether it be money, time, or emotions -- the less likely we are to abandon our initial choices. There are many examples of the sunk cost fallacy in action. For example, if you've invested $10,000 in a women's studies degree even though you recognize your job prospects following graduation are looking a tad bleak, you're likely to press on. Or, perhaps you've been waiting in the same line at the grocery store for nearly 10 minutes while others around you speed by. You've waited this long, so you refuse to budge. Or maybe you insist on getting through the final two chapters of the mediocre book you're reading, or wrapping up the last season of the show you've been watching for several years. After we commit, we tend to bind ourselves to our own decisions, an...

From our choice of partner to the job through which we earn a living, life entails making a slew of decisions -- many of them carrying tremendous weight -- in a world of seemingly endless possibilities. While, in retrospect, we wish we would have done certain certain things differently, all we can do is learn from our mistakes and use them as stepping stones for growth. Here are two valuable tips for making better decisions. 1. Consider the pros and cons. Whether you're buying a car or considering breaking up with your girlfriend of two years, weigh the positives and negatives carefully. I'm not talking about, say, deciding what you'll have for dinner tonight. I speak of those choices that can have life-altering implications. For example, you might be getting much more bells and whistles with a Nissan Maxima rather than a Honda Civic, but it'll come at a heftier price -- one that can put a major dent in your savings. And maybe you've been wondering lat...

Never be a prisoner of your past, for it was a lesson -- not a life sentence. There's nothing you can do to change what's already come to pass; all you can do is learn from it so that you don't make the same mistakes. There's no sense beating yourself up over past decisions that, in hindsight, you wish you hadn't made, whether that includes hooking up with your ex, taking a particular job, or making a poor investment. You should never lament anything that (1) once made you smile, even if it was at the very beginning (2) you ultimately learned from, making you a better person today. Our missteps, as a matter of fact, are our best teachers. It's through our mistakes that we gain the most wisdom. If we never made any, how could we ever better ourselves? Of course, that doesn't mean we should deliberately make foolish decisions for the sake of learning a lesson. But there's no question that all of us can cite at least a few choices we have made t...

Don't let other people stop you from achieving your goals. Don't let other people stop you from fulfilling your potential. Don't let others stop you from doing whatever makes you happy. Don't let others stop you from crying, venting, or defending yourself when you need to. Do whatever your gut tells you to do. Others may not like it, but it's your life. No one knows you like you know yourself, so they have absolutely no right to dictate your choices for you. You may be worried that leaving your job for another will inconvenience your boss. You may be concerned that breaking up with your boyfriend, even if you know in your heart that it's the right thing to, will hurt him, so you hold back. You might be skittish about buying the house down the street rather than the one on the next block that your doting aunt recommended. Guess what? It isn't even about other people. You have the power to make decisions in your life without others' conse...

Want to please everyone around you? Don't even bother. It's a fact of that life that people always find something to criticize you about, whether it's your new car ("it's so small"), the decorations used at your wedding reception ("they're so tacky"), or your profession ("she could have gone into something more lucrative"). Needless to say, someone will always take issue with something you do or don't do. Should you care? Absolutely not! As long as you're happy, that's all that matters. Be confident in your choices and do whatever gratifies you. It is, after all, your life and not theirs. I'm of the belief that people who have a knack for putting others' choices down are probably dissatisfied with their own. Perhaps feelings of envy are bubbling below the surface, and they try to make themselves feel better by undermining the other person's successes. Thus, misery loves company. It's a shame tha...

Is having too many choices good or bad? Some might say it's a good thing, as it allows you to pick what best suits your needs. Others contend it can be a bad thing in that it causes you to second guess your decisions, especially if the alternatives are fairly comparable. We face this type of conundrum on an almost-daily basis. Which job offer should I accept? Which computer should I buy? Which of these two guys should I become exclusive with? About a month or two before graduating from college, I was hitting the pavement hard in hopes of landing a full-time job. (Mind you, this wasn't long before the global recession began.) I went on a flurry of interviews and was offered nearly every position I applied for. I turned down the first two because I thought the salary being offered was a tad low. Besides, I didn't want to run after the first opportunity that came my way; I wished to take a little more time testing the job market waters. Unfortunately, the positio...

Nelson Mandela once said, "A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination." I think he was spot on. We should never allow the heart to dictate all our decisions, nor should we let rationality call the shots on its own all the time. Instead, we should balance what the mind wants with what the heart desires. The two should work in tandem with and complement each other, thus allowing us to make better decisions in the process. Wearing your heart on your sleeve all the time might lead to your being taken advantage of. And using logic as a guide without ever considering your emotions can be conducive to playing it too safe. With the latter, you're being too carefree. With the former, you're being too rigid. The ideal? Striking a healthy balance between the two. As long as the heart checks the brain and vice-versa, one is better positioned to make better choices. Do you agree with Mandela?

Our lifestyles are a direct reflection of various factors, including our personalities, jobs, and responsibilities at home. Parents' lives are presumably much busier and more stressful than those of the child-free. Teachers will lead much different lives than doctors, cops face a much different set of pressures than, say, couriers and chefs.  Some of us have more active social lives than our peers. While I have only three really close friends in my life, some people would need more than two hands to count all their buddies.  There are those who embrace a busy, strenuous life, and then there are people like me who prefer a more relaxed, deliberate pace. Neither is necessarily better than the other. We are each wired differently and derive stimulation from disparate sources -- the more introverted among us from reading, writing and other solitary activities, and the rest from social engagements like parties. Some of us go to church, others to sports games.  So...