I talked to many people who are stuck at the proverbial fork in the road and they couldn’t decide which way to go. Rather than choosing one path or the other, they stayed rooted in place and couldn’t move forward at all.
They asked me, “Which is the right thing to do? I just don’t know what to do!”
Most of the time the answer may not be that complicated but, before I get to it, I want to share a little information about decision-making. You may agree or otherwise but they are from my limited experience and observation throughout the years - I may be wrong though. We basically have 3 types of decisions. We can choose between the following probable outcomes:
Bad vs. Good: This is the easiest decision to make. Good hands down.
Bad vs. Equally Bad: This is the second easiest decision to make. Would you rather find out that your wife is cheating on you or find out that your house just burned to the ground? Would you rather die in a car accident or a plane accident? Would you rather lose your job or lose your life savings? Does it really matter? For most of us, making these types of decisions is as simple as flipping a coin because the end result is the same: would you rather be miserable or be just as miserable?
Good vs. Equally Good: These are the hardest decisions to make, because you spend your time second-guessing yourself. Should I marry the hot girl who has no personality or the girl with the personality who isn’t remotely hot? Tough one.
Obviously there are different shades in between, but you get the idea. It’s usually the good vs. good decisions that cause people to stand still.
What to do? Just choose one or the other and go with it.
Is it the right decision? Is it the wrong decision? No one can predict the future. We just need to make a choice. That’s what life is all about: the journey.
I always like to quote about Thomas Edison last time and I'm going to use it again. Think about where we would be if Thomas Edison sat in his little workshop (or wherever the heck it was he tried to assemble the light bulb) and continually asked himself: Is this right? Should I do this? What if this doesn’t work?
We’d be in the dark. That’s where we’d be.
Make your decisions in life the same way a scientist conducts an experiment. Go with your best hypothesis. If you can’t even get as far as a hunch or a gut feeling, then flip a coin or ask a friend to do an eeany meany miney moe. Then move forward. Life is your experiment. See what happens. If you end up with an undesirable result, make a new decision and start over.
Whenever you make a decision, resist the urge to look back and regret the decision you could have made instead. Learn from the decision you did make so you can make even better decisions in the future.
You’ll eventually come to see that there is no such thing as a bad decision. There just isn’t. Life is a series of choices, with each choice resulting in a series of events, some of them beneficial and some of them not. As long as you continually embrace change and learn from your past, you will find that your life keeps getting better and better.
I must admit life is not as easy as we see at times. I myself are NO better or different from anyone else as I have my fair share of tough decision to make during many occasions, but then we all learn along the way. We just got to bite the bullet and move on at times. All the very best to all my friends.
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