You didn’t get your regular Bit O'Moxie Tuesday because I was off celebrating my 43rd birthday! It was a glorious day, made all the better by well wishes from some of you!
But here's what I wanted to share this week:
It's absolutely ok (read: necessary!) to try new things, even when you're not sure of how it'll all work out.
Beth and I were talking about how paralyzed she feels. She's been trying to choose between two options for a project she's working on for her business. Because she has no prior experience with this, and neither option seems perfect, she's been unable to make a decision—for six weeks. Six weeks! That's a long time to be undecided. And, in Beth's case, while she's been chewing on this, she's missed a few opportunities. Having missed the opportunities has left her feeling defeated. The downward spiral is ugly.
I know how Beth feels. Life often throws you a couple of options to choose between. I don't understand why it seems to come down to two, but often it just does. And trying to decide is rather like standing at a fork in the road and having to make the call about whether to go left, or right. Since almost no decision you make is going to lock you in to something for life, don't let yourself get stuck deciding.
Bit O’Moxie: Just GO.
If it turns out to be the wrong direction, you can change it. Sitting down at the fork in the road engaging in the "left/right…left/right…left/right," angst-ridden decision-making thing is nothing more than mental masturbation, and won't serve you, or anyone else.
If it helps you, when you have two choices, immediately see a fork in the road, and intuitively assign one of the choices to the left-hand road, and the other to the right-hand road. Then picture yourself walking up to the fork, and as you get to it, immediately choose one of the roads. Whichever choice you've assigned to that road is THE choice you'll make in that instance.
Don't think about it, just head in a direction.
Me—I always go left. And when I can't, I look for a third option; often a path branching off one of the roads.
What matters is that you take action; that you try SOMETHING. Sure; mistakes will happen, but you'll have learned something in the process, and you'll choose better next time.
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