Making decisions

                 
                            If you are doing exams this year like GCSEs or A Levels, although they can be stressful, it can mean the start of something new and exciting.  It's the time when you start thinking about what you are going to do next.  Even if you aren’t doing exams, you might have some choices about your future to make.

When you are little, your parents or carers make many of your choices for you. Learning to make your own decisions can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be. There are lots of people around who can help you, give you advice and support you while you make decisions. Parents, older brothers or sisters, teachers and friends can all be helpful.

Making decisions

You can also talk to ChildLine if you are worried about your future or making choices. You could post a message on the message board and get help from the ChildLine community or visit the Your future page for help and advice.

How can I make a decision?

Some things that might help you make a decision or choose between two different options are:

• Think about what you like doing first
• Write down a list of pros and cons (good and bad things) about each option
• Try and imagine that you have made one decision and think about how you feel. If you are worried about it, it might not be right for you. Talk to someone about how you feel
• Ask questions – talk to people who have made the same choices and find out what they think or what it was like for them.
• If you are choosing where to study, visit colleges/universities and talk to students there to find out what it’s like to go there
• Ask what support the college/university offers. Does it have a good record of people getting jobs or going on to further education? Does it have links with local businesses and organisations where you could get work experience?

The BBC Headroom website has some useful resources including a Problem Solving worksheet. You can download it from the BBC Headroom website by clicking on the 'Anxiety Intervention' link.
What if I’ve made the wrong decision – can I change my mind?

If you have made a choice and are now not happy or think that you have made the wrong decision, you should tell someone who can help now. You don’t have to stay doing something that is making you unhappy and the sooner you speak to someone about it, the easier it will be to change.

If it’s a problem with a course at school or college you can talk to your teacher or careers adviser and get help. It might be scary but realising that something isn’t right is a really mature and part of learning to make decisions. No one makes the right decision all the time and lots of people change their minds about decisions, even if they were sure about them before.

If you are worried about your future, or having a tough time making decisions, you can talk to us at anytime. The message board is a great place to ask other users for their opinion. Some people may have gone through similar things and can tell you about their experience. Take a look at the message boards.
Who else can help me with my future choices?

Employment/Careers
• Connexions http://www.connexions-direct.com
• Princes Trust http://www.princes-trust.org.uk
• The Youth of Today http://www.theyouthoftoday.org/
• Youth Access http://www.youthaccess.org.uk/events/

Housing
• Centrepoint http://www.street-level.org.uk
• The Scottish Council for Single Homeless (SCSH) http://www.scsh.co.uk/
• Shelter http://www.shelter.org.uk
• Shelter Scotland (SCSH) http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/
• Runaway Helpline http://www.runawayhelpline.org
• The London Refuge http://www.stchris.org.uk/

General
• Youth Information http://www.youthinformation.com/

Find other sites that might help in our useful links section

Message boards

Have you got something to say, or want to ask a question? Visit the message board to have your say.

Making decisions

Is there any other information about making decisions that you'd like us to add to this page?

Making decisions

Privacy and advice: About Childline; confidentiality promise; Cover your tracks

Accessibility

We want to make sure everyone can access the information provided on this site

We've put together a few tips and help for you. Please send us a message if you can't find what you're looking for. Or you have a suggestion of something we could include.

Using the keyboard instead of the mouse.
As well as using the tab key to navigate through the screen, the ChildLine website has special access keys:

Alt+S = skip navigation
Alt+1 = home
Alt+0 = accessibility information.

Is the text size too large or too small?
You can change your text settings through your browser options:

In Internet Explorer, go to View > Text size and select your desired text size setting (eg, larger, smaller).

In Firefox, go to View > Text size and increase/decrease using Ctrl and + or -

If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, you can hold down Ctrl and scroll back or forth to increase or decrease the font size in both IE and Firefox.

Changing your computer screen settings
To change the size of the image shown on your screen on a PC running Windows 95 and upwards, go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display > Settings and change the desktop area by using the sliding bar.

On an Apple Mac, you can use the Monitor & Sound Control Panel to change the resolution.

Having difficulty with your keyboard or mouse?
You can fine-tune your mouse and keyboard settings under Start > Settings > Control Panel > Accessibility in Windows 95/98/NT/2000 and XP.

Skipping navigation for talking browsers and screen readers
For speech browsers, you can press Alt and S followed by Enter to skip navigation on our pages.

The site is W3C level A compliant.

Help

This page contains help and advice. If you need to contact ChildLine please go to the Talk to us page

Search for something on the website
To search for something on the website, type what you want to find in the search box on the navigation of the site.