12. Making The Decision
The point where you must decide
We’re forced to make hundreds of decisions every day. What time to get up, what clothes to wear, what to eat, what to read, what to say, who to interact with, where to go, how to spend our money — and the list goes on and on. We make so many decisions, there’s even a term for stress associated with all of our daily choices, decision fatigue. These seemingly small decisions can cumulatively take up a lot of energy, which is why we hear stories about leaders choosing to wear nearly the same thing each day to save their decision making powers for the big stuff.
Yet on most days we act as though our decisions are already made for us.
“I have to go to work” or “I have to _____” (fill in the blank).
Whenever I find myself thinking “I have to do this,” I try to correct my thinking. I reframe it as “I choose to do this”. At any moment I can walk away from any part of my life that I have created. Yes there would be major or minor consequences, all which must be considered carefully, but there are still choices.
You would think with all of this practice making decisions, that we would become better at it over time. Yet when it comes to the big decisions, the life changing ones we freeze. We stop dead in our tracks and convince ourselves things are what they are. To change them would impossible or be too great of a risk.
I was reminded today that when it comes to matters of life changing decisions, there will always be some risk to weigh and a cost associated with whatever choice we make. We can stay the course and risk loosing out on what could have been. We can take the alternate journey and risk losing what we know so well.
Still, as confusing as it seems we already know the answers don’t we?
We know what we really want. We also know that might be in direct contradiction of what we should do. But if we keep arriving at the same answer over and over again, can’t we just agree to follow our instincts? Take that leap of faith. Stop wondering what would happen if we did something and instead find out what happens when we just do it. If you’re like me and have studied something over and over again using hours upon hours to agonize over which road to take, let’s just agree that it’s time to do it. Let’s bite the bullet. Let’s pay the price. Because the only thing more tiring than making hundreds of small decisions every day, is convincing myself not to make that one big decision for the rest of my life.
