Difficult Decisions

Difficult Decisions

Several times in my life I, like many others, have needed to make a difficult decision. A difficult decision in that both options carry a perpendicular amount of both risk and benefits. Generally one option has little risk at all with very predictable benefits where as the other contains the exact opposite, lots of risks with incredible benefits possible. A difficult decision has the ability to change one’s life forever. How is one supposed to make such a binding verdict?

The very first step is to take all of those opinions and suggestions that every single passerby seems to be shoving down your throat and toss them out the window. How are you supposed to be able to hear your own heart with everyone else’s yelling in your ear? In the end you must not follow the neighbors’ or your mother’s or father’s or sister’s or friends’ but rather your heart alone.

The second step is to identify what all exactly your heart truly desires weather it be happiness, money, travel, sports, etc. However, we never desire only one thing but rather multiple. The key to the second step is to find the place where these desires have the ability to come together and coexist. You will certainly have to make sacrifices in order to find such a place and even more to get there.

The third step is rather childish, literally. In the third step all you have to do is recall the time you spent in grade school working on those dot-to-dot pictures. Look at everything going on around you that has an affect on your life and you will soon see a pattern and although you will not have all of the dots, you will be able to see a general picture and an idea where you are headed. Be sure to take into account even the smallest of details as the more dots you have, the easier it is to make out the big picture. The events in your life often give you clues as to where your life is headed.

The fourth step is by far the most feared step, as it requires you to jump without seeing in front of you. You must seize any opportunity or anything that even resembles an opportunity for you to reach the place we discussed in the second step.  Opportunities are oh so very rare. They are rare, much more rarer than you think as said by Nassim Nicholas Thaleb. Find your opportunity and go seize it before it’s too late.

The fifth and by far the most important step in the whole decision making process is this: Stay true to your own heart. In the end it all comes back to your hear. Our mind often rationalizes things that should not be rationalized but in fact lead us from our core values and away from what our heart truly desires. Don’t trick your own heart.

Your time is limited. The regret is in the not doing. The situation will never be perfect. Don’t be afraid to take risks and be different.

ZLilly

“You’ve got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you’re not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.” Stephen D. Woodhull