Essays
Accept the tradeoffs
An essential aspect of decision-making is understanding that a clear “best” decision rarely exists. Sometimes, they do. The rare unicorn where the right choice jumps out in front of you. But decisions become more challenging and unclear when reaching for something beyond our skills and abilities.
Make better decisions
Simply speaking, even the smallest decisions can lead to big changes. That’s why our decisions can propel us to new heights or create unexpected obstacles that are difficult to overcome. We’re the curators of our lives and responsible for every decision, good and bad.
Worry about yourself.
We’re relatively unrestricted in our choices, short of negatively impacting others. Rules disincentivize behaviors the culture deems wrong or incongruent with a healthy and happy population. Aside from those, we are responsible for taking ownership of our choices and the outcomes those choices bring.
Fail forward.
One of the purposes of these essays is to convey universal thoughts and ideas. Truisms that, if applied to life, would reap benefits or limit the possibility of disappointment and failure. Which brings up the idea of failure as a consequence of action. There’s no guarantee that you’ll be successful at anything. If success were guaranteed, you would feel less, if any, accomplishment or gratitude for the effort.
What’s holding you back?
I’ve written about the inner voice that tells us we’re not good enough, we’re going to fail again, and everything else that prevents us from pursuing what is meaningful. Pushing outside our comfort zones triggers feelings of fear and doubt. But we’re still driven toward something we want or believe we want. So how do you overcome those inner demons when they’ve paralyzed your brain into overthinking or an inability to form a coherent thought? You have to dig in and figure out what it is that is holding you back.