When I’m standing in the middle of a decision, not sure of which direction to take, a picture of my mom comes into my head. She always used to say, “Do any reasonable thing quickly, rather than reaching hesitantly for the ideal.”
Decisions are difficult. It doesn’t seem to always matter the importance of it or its outcome. When my dear friend and former colleague and I ran our own reading clinic years ago, we used to spend countless silly minutes trying to figure out where to go for lunch. We would go through the same questions – “What are you hungry for?” “What sounds good?” Finally, we would say, “Where do you NOT want to go?” and see if we could come to a decision that way.
I got really tired of trying to figure out what to cook for dinner. I didn’t mind COOKING it so much as the constant pressure to try to figure out something that would please, wouldn’t take a lot of time or effort – as I had always worked a full day before having to do it – provide a reasonable variety, etc. I used to ask my husband what he was hungry for while trying to make a grocery list. He would always say, “Whatever you cook is good.” And while that was nice in its way, it wasn’t helpful.
Decisions that involve things where consequences matter are much more difficult, of course. Sometimes even agonizing, when all of the avenues are distasteful, painful, or scary. Whenever I’m faced with one of these, I consider each avenue, then ask myself, “If I do this, what’s the worst that could happen?” If I find one in which I can handle the answer to that, I have my avenue.
creativeartworksblog 