Clarity about these two distinctions, together and separately, will give you power

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Both distinctions presuppose an "I" that is the chooser or decider. Even if a committee decides on something by vote, it is still the separate individual I's who are members of the committee and who decide to be part of the voting process who are the ultimate deciders.

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With often use these two terms interchangeably, as in "I chose to get married" or "I decided to get married."

 

Each choice/decision, however, includes two distinct types of verbal actions, both of which are indicated by either choosing or deciding. Choosing puts more emphasis on one type, deciding on the other.

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Deciding

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Let's look at the second type first, which the word "deciding" emphasizes. "Deciding," in its connotation, focuses more on the speaking and mental acts of making a determination of the facts that are recognized as important in the process of creating an assessment of those facts in order to support the decision. "Deciding" more lives in the speaking domain of making assertions, statements about what is true or not.

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Choosing

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"Choosing," in its connotation, focuses more on the speaking act of making a declaration (as distinct from an assertion), in which a declaration is a speaking act which creates something in the world immediately as it is spoken. It is a God-like action in that, when you speak a declaration, the speaking of it makes it so. A simple example of a declarative form of speaking is saying the word "Hello" to someone. The word "hello" does not refer to anything outside of itself like an assertion does, the truth of which can be measured by its congruence to some reality. A declaration becomes immediately true just by speaking it. 

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