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There I was, standing at the metaphorical fork in the road. I’m guessing it’s one you know well too. I need to make a decision, I told myself, yet I was temporarily stuck between what-is and what could-be.
A million questions floated through my mind, but none so persistent as: What if I make the wrong choice?
We obsess over our decisions, big and small, because we’re worried about that one nagging question. It’s the one that keeps us up at night: Which option is the wrong one?
Notice, it’s rare to ask yourself which choice is the RIGHT one. Most often, it’s about avoiding the WRONG one.
Either way, agonizing over your decision won’t get you far. Should you weigh your options? Of course. However, eventually, you need to make a decision and take action.
Hello, anxiety and pressure! Welcome to the fork in the road.
Imagine my shock a couple of weeks ago. My web host updated the PHP used on my site (don’t ask me what that technically means). What it meant to me was that my website was broken post-update.
I tapped into the expertise on Fiverr and was informed that my website was dunzo and unfixable.
Not fixable? Irreparably broken? After 450+ articles over nine years? That news, quite frankly, sucked.
Was it a sign from the universe?
Time for a professional pivot?
What did I want to do about this busted lump of a site?
And this, my friends, is how I made my way to that fork I mentioned earlier.
Every choice will take you somewhere. How the heck do you figure out where you want to go?
Need to make a decision? Start here:
You know how you got to your fork in the road. I’ll bet you are also intimately acquainted with the pressure associated with your need to make a decision – and soon.
Here are 5 questions and 5 tips to help you make the best decision you can at this moment and move forward.
Questions:
- What happens if I do nothing?
- Which option has the most positive energy for me?
- Are any of my choices un-doable? (Am I stuck once I travel down that path, or can I turn around and choose again?)
- How do I react when I take a choice off of the table for further consideration? Relieved or stressed?
- Can I make it happen?
Tips:
- Put a time constraint on it if there’s not one already.
- Shift from avoidance of the WRONG decision to identifying the RIGHT one.
- Tap into the way it makes you feel, not only the effort it will take.
- Watch your language – are you making excuses or making the leap?
- Take ownership of the decision. It’s tempting to ask 9,999 other people what they would do, but the choice is yours to make.
Discover the blessing of a forced decision.
I knew I’d re-do my site someday and perhaps pivot my business further, but expected more time to do my mulling. Nope.
You know that when you have all the time in the world to decide, you take all that time.
You get it done.