Saturday morning I wrestled with the pros and cons of hiking. The weather forecasted rain starting around noon. My daughter, who starts her sophomore year at U. of Washington this week, was home for one final weekend. I hadn’t hiked since our birthday trip to Peek-a-Boo Lake. I reflected on resistance and ambivalence and how decisional balance can help us make choices when we face change.

Our 10-mile hike felt like a race against time as a front moved into the mountains. The view is looking due north from the West Tiger 3 summit.
Our 10-mile hike felt like a race against time as a front moved into the mountains. The view is looking due north from the West Tiger 3 summit.

Decisional Balance: Cons

Resistance and ambivalence are normal and expected in the process of change. I tend to focus on obstacles first. If I perceive too many, I avoid the first step, in this case, getting into the car. The roadblocks felt ample:

  • My daughter was home for the weekend, but she had to work, so I would be hiking alone with Ajax
  • Hiking half a day meant delaying my weekly blog
  • We’d get a later start than usual since I hadn’t totally packed
  • Even in the shoulder season, weekend crowds are still likely on trails
  • Hiking meant postponing doing my foot and hip rehab exercises
  • I had no audiobook to listen to on the drive and nobody to talk to

When I listed the cons, I noticed the biggest ones revolved around going alone and prioritizing my time. Then I shifted my thoughts to how I might reframe them into positives.

View toward the east from just east of West Tiger 1, en route to Preston/Bootleg trails. The fall color change has just started!
View toward the east from just east of West Tiger 1, en route to Preston/Bootleg trails. The fall color change has just started!

Decisional Balance: Pros

Reframing is one of the most powerful tools in a coach’s toolbox. It helps us turn negatives into positives. Here’s what I came up with when I tried turning my cons into pros:

  • I committed to doing a ramble a week with my dog Ajax this year; this would be number 60.
  • Hiking would supply a topic and photos for a blog post; nobody cares about the timing of launches but me
  • We could get on the trail by 7:15; the hike I wanted to do never had very many people
  • I could do my PT later in the evening
  • Hiking in the morning would mean we’d beat the rain
  • Birdsong! Need I say more? Fall migrants might present themselves
  • Enjoying nature is one of the best ways for me to reflect on all the changes in my life
  • I wanted a memorable way to celebrate finishing the Precision Nutrition Master Health Coach course which is the first stepping stone to becoming a board-certified Health and Wellness Coach with the NBHWC
Ajax celebrates my achievements at the summit of West Tiger 1. I do so love that little guy.
Ajax celebrates my achievements at the summit of West Tiger 1. I do so love that little guy.

By reframing my list of cons into pros, I could focus on the main reason to hike: to celebrate! If we don’t highlight and enjoy our accomplishments, they get lost in the rush of daily living. I wanted to pause and do something I love, even if it meant delaying other important things.

Assessing Change Readiness

Enter decisional balance, which is a way of weighing the costs and benefits of choices. For simple decisions, we do this intuitively and quickly, usually without writing anything down. But if you have larger life changes you’ve been considering for quite a while, writing the pros and cons on paper might help.

An example of a hard decision is whether to stay at a current job with people you enjoy that provides security and benefits, but which is totally boring, or to switch to a better-paying job in a new industry with a lot to learn and no guarantees. Which direction you choose depends on your values, identity, and priorities.


One of the tipping points for me in decisional balance was seeing the fall colors. October is a beautiful month to enjoy the mountains.
One of the tipping points for me in decisional balance was seeing the fall colors. October is a beautiful month to enjoy the mountains.

To explore decisions yourself, check out this decisional balance worksheet from Nova Southeastern University, along with an explanation of how to complete it. Precision Nutrition also offers a worksheet called the decision journal.

Bootleg Trail

On our descent, we hit an unexpected obstacle. I’d started composing a blog post in my mind about decisional balance and stopped paying attention to the trail. When we reached a turnstile with a sign for the Bootleg Trail, I stopped in my tracks.

Crud! How did we get on the wrong trail?

The overgrown entry into the forest east of all the logged areas is marked with a small rock cairn and faded pink ribbon on two bushes. The detour beneath the deforested boundary is not marked except by faded blue arrows on the uphill trees.
The overgrown entry into the forest east of all the logged areas is marked with a small rock cairn and faded pink ribbon on two bushes. The detour beneath the deforested boundary is not marked except by faded blue arrows on the uphill trees.

We weren’t exactly lost. I’d been on this stretch during prior exploratory rambles. But we were too far east. My attempt to access a map showing whether the Tiger Mountain Trail or Railroad Grade route crossed nearby failed. Drat Mint Mobile!

Oh well, I thought, what’s another mile? As we did on Squak, we retraced our steps. Fortunately, I found the bypass trail with faint blue arrows pointing west. Aha! Back on track.

Lessons Learned

I certainly didn’t expect to see Bootleg Trail yesterday. Nor did I anticipate my hesitancy to launch the wellness coaching branch of our company. As in all aspects of life, sometimes our experiences and expectations don’t match.

Yet mistakes are great teachers. And when we make mistakes and say “Oh well, no big deal,” or better yet, “What can I learn from this?” we advance toward cultivating a growth mindset.

It's mushroom season!
It’s mushroom season!
How to Use Decisional Balance to Help Make Choices
How to Use Decisional Balance to Help Make Choices

Once we reached a trail I recognized, I reflected on the past twenty weeks of coaching classes. I also reminded myself of my intention to continue the forward momentum I’d built all summer. On our way down the Cable Line trail to our car, I shot some videos introducing Webtraining. My first step toward getting less awkward in front of the camera is to take more video selfies while on hikes. I got this!

In the end, my decision to hike yesterday was the best one I could have made. As soon as we got home, it started to pour. The forecast for the foreseeable future is rain. But I’m basking in the glow of a summer of successes and of yesterday’s wonderful (albeit long) celebration hike.

Published by Courtenay Schurman

Co-author of The Outdoor Athlete (2009) and Train to Climb Mt. Rainier or Any High Peak DVD (2002), author of Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills/conditioning chapter 4 (3 editions), and Peak Performance column for the Mountaineers Mag (2014-present). Member of PNWA, SCBWI, EPIC. Served on the steering committee for WOTS (2019-present). Completed UW Certificate program for Children's Literature and Memoir. Co-owner of Body Results, Inc. in Seattle. Climb leader with Seattle Mountaineers for over 15 years. Volunteer at Woodland Park Zoo since 2014.

2 replies on “How to Use Decisional Balance to Help Make Choices”

  1. Great post & timing. Last Saturday, I hesitated on going on a hike due to inclement weather forecast. I also started a bit later due to the sunrise being later. Anyhow I was first to hit the trail. Half a kilometre later, a guy passed me to let me know that the rain was coming. I said thanks and continued & I said to myself, there is only one season in the mountains, so I was prepare & ready for the rain. The rain came, when I was about to complete the last leg of the mountain. I had another summit all by myself.

    I set to hike Mount Prevost twice each month until 2024 Spring, for training & for the fun of it.

    Also, this morning I was wondering if I should do another backpacking trip to the mountains. While I was driving, I was contemplating the pros & cons & where to go.

    Your blog is such a good timing.

    Love it.👍

    1. Fabulous to hear that the blog post resonated with you! Sounds like we have similar ambivalence about the weather but if we’re prepared with the right gear, we can enjoy no matter what the conditions.
      Your goal to hike Mt. Prevost twice a month through spring 2024 sounds like a great one. And backpacking in the fall can be so lovely — I want to soak up all the fall colors.
      Keep hiking, keep shooting, keep posting.
      Appreciate your support and readership!

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