Crossing
Bridges
“The
hardest thing to learn in life is which bridges to cross and which to burn.”
David
Russell
Being
decisive has never been my strong suit. I dilly-dally, I rethink, I ponder, and
if I come to a decision at all it’s usually because I ran out of time and just
had to pull the trigger. What that truly means is that my decisions are made by
default. I listen to what people tell me I “should” do, and it sounds reasonable,
but still, I feel resistance within. Some of it is pure laziness—it would be a
whole lot of work and organization, and marketing, and promoting—and I just want
to do the creative parts and leave the rest to someone else. Some of it is fear
of failure. It’s not always present in my mind but operating in the background
like an evil imp.
Elbert
Hubbard said, “The biggest mistake you can make in life is to be continually
fearing you’ll make one.” Fear of some kind is at the root of most of life’s
problems. In the case of decision making, one must do a bit of digging to
discover the source of the hesitation. It takes some bearing of the soul, a
little stripping of the defenses, and a big dose of raw honesty to decipher whether
fear is the source of the hesitation, or if there is a rational explanation.
I’ve
begun to ask myself questions like: “What do I want to leave behind as a legacy?”
“What has my life stood for?” “What seems essential to pass on to future
generations?” “Is it worth all the work?” What I’ve decided is that if I want
to do something, if it’s truly a clear intention, then it is worth the
work. Even if I fail, I will still have the satisfaction of having given it my best shot.
I
wonder about you. How do you come to decisions that mean you’ll have to make
some changes? Are you decisive? Does it take you forever to make up your mind? Do
you start strong and then peter-out into indecision? Here’s a little something
to motivate all of us: “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are
you will fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for
you—not much!” (Jim Rohn) Take a step in the direction you want to go and
see how it feels. Then take another step. Who knows, you might just succeed.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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