“Decisions are more difficult than actions. Decisions paralyze people. Actions are easy. Decisions paralyze people because decisions require change.”
-- Robert McKee
Sometimes in our lives we get stuck. Sometimes we find ourselves in a rut, unable to move forward or turn right. Sometimes we find ourselves awake at 2:00 am, analyzing the options, imagining the different possibilities. There are many important choices that keep us awake at night. These could include any of the following:
- Job A or job B
- House A or house B
- Career A or career B
- Retire or work
- Relationship or divorce
- Move or stay
- Drive or fly
Every time in my life when I find myself stuck, it is because I have not yet made a decision. When I find myself awake at 2:00 am, it is because I have not yet analyzed my way to a decision; I am still in limbo and I don’t yet know the right path forward. Every time this happens I have the exact same dream: I am driving a car and I cannot keep my eyes open - they are incredibly heavy and remain closed - so I'm absolutely panicked as I try to drive my car with my eyes closed.
During the past two years, I have had to make several challenging decisions, challenging because there was no obvious right answer and I had to feel my way to the best outcome. But in each of the different situations I found myself anxious, stressed out and tired, UP UNTIL THE POINT OF DECISION. After the decision was made I immediately became energized, excited, and motivated.
I am comfortable with action, I enjoy implementing action, making phone calls, doing online research, scheduling reservations, or movers or dogsitters. Action is great – I love action. But action only comes AFTER the decision. And it can take a lot of extra wasted energy to get to the decision.
Which is why it is very smart to reduce the amount of indecision in our lives. Indecision drains us and keeps us stuck. Decisions move us into the future.
-- Robert McKee
Sometimes in our lives we get stuck. Sometimes we find ourselves in a rut, unable to move forward or turn right. Sometimes we find ourselves awake at 2:00 am, analyzing the options, imagining the different possibilities. There are many important choices that keep us awake at night. These could include any of the following:
- Job A or job B
- House A or house B
- Career A or career B
- Retire or work
- Relationship or divorce
- Move or stay
- Drive or fly
Every time in my life when I find myself stuck, it is because I have not yet made a decision. When I find myself awake at 2:00 am, it is because I have not yet analyzed my way to a decision; I am still in limbo and I don’t yet know the right path forward. Every time this happens I have the exact same dream: I am driving a car and I cannot keep my eyes open - they are incredibly heavy and remain closed - so I'm absolutely panicked as I try to drive my car with my eyes closed.
During the past two years, I have had to make several challenging decisions, challenging because there was no obvious right answer and I had to feel my way to the best outcome. But in each of the different situations I found myself anxious, stressed out and tired, UP UNTIL THE POINT OF DECISION. After the decision was made I immediately became energized, excited, and motivated.
I am comfortable with action, I enjoy implementing action, making phone calls, doing online research, scheduling reservations, or movers or dogsitters. Action is great – I love action. But action only comes AFTER the decision. And it can take a lot of extra wasted energy to get to the decision.
Which is why it is very smart to reduce the amount of indecision in our lives. Indecision drains us and keeps us stuck. Decisions move us into the future.
This is why I encourage people who want to become fit to sign up for a training class at a regular day and time. This is why I advise triathletes to plan their training schedule for the entire week or month ahead. Because then you are only making ONE decision instead of thirty separate decisions.
I read a statistic that people who plan to exercise 7 days a week are far more consistent with their training sessions, as compared to people who plan to exercise 4 or 5 days per week. This is counterintuitive – you would think the more frequently you exercise, the harder it would be to fit in that many training sessions, and the greater the opportunity for scheduling conflicts. You would think that people who plan to exercise 7 days per week would have some margin for slacking off built into their training plan – those are the people who could afford to skip a few sessions.
Instead, the reverse is true. People who plan to exercise 7 days a week actually do exercise 7 days per week. But the people who plan to exercise 4 or 5 days per week actually only exercise 2 or 3 days per week.
The reason is because the 7 day a week people only had to make ONE decision. They decided ONE TIME that they would exercise every day. However, the 4-5 times a week people had to wake up and decide EVERY DAY if they would exercise that day or not. So they had to make 7 decisions per week. And every decision provided them an opportunity for laziness and slacking off. Every individual decision increased the risk to their plan.
When I was active with the Tucson Tri Girls triathlon club, I organized an annual December “runathon” challenge. During the month of December, the participants would agree to run at least 2 miles EVERY single day of the month. Most people would typically run 3-6 miles per day, but 2 miles was the absolute minimum. Of the people who signed up, between 60-80% completed the challenge. What this challenge did was it changed people’s daily decision from “Will I run today?” to instead become “When will I run today?” And that simple shift helped people train far more consistently. They made one decision about their December running, instead of 30 separate decisions.
What’s the lesson in all of this? Reduce the number of decisions necessary in your life. Reduce the energy you waste before making decisions. Then you can move forward with action and action will get you the results you really want. Analysis never will.
Realtors have a phrase to describe desirable properties: Location, location, location.
My new motto is going to be this: Decide, decide, decide.
I read a statistic that people who plan to exercise 7 days a week are far more consistent with their training sessions, as compared to people who plan to exercise 4 or 5 days per week. This is counterintuitive – you would think the more frequently you exercise, the harder it would be to fit in that many training sessions, and the greater the opportunity for scheduling conflicts. You would think that people who plan to exercise 7 days per week would have some margin for slacking off built into their training plan – those are the people who could afford to skip a few sessions.
Instead, the reverse is true. People who plan to exercise 7 days a week actually do exercise 7 days per week. But the people who plan to exercise 4 or 5 days per week actually only exercise 2 or 3 days per week.
The reason is because the 7 day a week people only had to make ONE decision. They decided ONE TIME that they would exercise every day. However, the 4-5 times a week people had to wake up and decide EVERY DAY if they would exercise that day or not. So they had to make 7 decisions per week. And every decision provided them an opportunity for laziness and slacking off. Every individual decision increased the risk to their plan.
When I was active with the Tucson Tri Girls triathlon club, I organized an annual December “runathon” challenge. During the month of December, the participants would agree to run at least 2 miles EVERY single day of the month. Most people would typically run 3-6 miles per day, but 2 miles was the absolute minimum. Of the people who signed up, between 60-80% completed the challenge. What this challenge did was it changed people’s daily decision from “Will I run today?” to instead become “When will I run today?” And that simple shift helped people train far more consistently. They made one decision about their December running, instead of 30 separate decisions.
What’s the lesson in all of this? Reduce the number of decisions necessary in your life. Reduce the energy you waste before making decisions. Then you can move forward with action and action will get you the results you really want. Analysis never will.
Realtors have a phrase to describe desirable properties: Location, location, location.
My new motto is going to be this: Decide, decide, decide.
No comments:
Post a Comment