[Updated 12/1/2020]
Decisions are an unbroken phenomenon. Whether you take them or not, they are being made.
All choices you make or don’t make are a decision. And that gives shape to everything around us.
Also, decision making holds so much power, as if it’s the signature of your will to assert something and every time you sign something, you are giving birth to endless possibilities.
The very world we live in changes by the decisions made by every single individual on the planet.
And if that is the case for everything then we must consciously think about the choices we make and the decisions we take, because just one of them could change everything forever.
Now taking the right decisions is a difficult task and most jeopardize their possibilities by procrastinating to take one because most people don’t want to make the wrong call. Some even overthink stuff and over idealize their choices to the point where the line between practicality and self-indulgence is thin.
Some are even self-preserving to avoid shattering their false perception of themselves or their capabilities.
In any case, let me tell you, any decision that helps you experience new things, helps you learn something, however uncomfortably, and enriches your perspective about life is worth taking.
Weigh your decisions on that scale and at the least, you can expect to continually grow as an individual.
Beyond that here are 3 things you can consider to come past inaction and start implementing the decisions you take to bring change in your life once and for all.
The omission bias
The omission bias states that we tend to judge harmful actions worse than equally harmful inactions.
This can be seen when people are stuck between working for their calling and working for their livelihood and where both of them don’t converge.
One might say that I can’t take this job up because it is not what I want to do or there isn’t any long term meaning in it and at the same time they don’t even have a job they want or it’s a freelance gig that comes and goes not particularly adding any sustained value.
It’s a situation where virtually nothing is happening but doing something is deemed worse than doing nothing.
Well let me tell you this, it’s great to have dreams but life is not always about what you want, a lot of times, it’s about what’s the need of the hour?
Doing something is marginally better than doing nothing and if you have the perspective for it, you can see yourself experiencing life in a new form, and with some decent planning and patience, you can work towards what you want while doing something the time demands.
I said marginally well because not everything you do has any true progression, you need to be deliberate about the direction of things that you do.
Perfectionism is also a result of this bias.
Mediocre work is judged worse than no work.
Be self-aware of such inaction and learn to see things for what they are and how you can make the best of what’s possible right now while planning consciously for the future.
Because if you are not a part of the solution then you could be a part of the problem.
Perfectionism is also a result of the Omission bias. Mediocre work is judged worse than no work. Share on X
Alternative Paths
In the book “The art of thinking clearly”, the author Rolf Dobelli speaks of alternative paths, which can be assumed as a theory that says, alternative paths are all the outcomes that could have happened but did not. He says, that alternative paths are invisible and so we barely contemplate them.
He demonstrates them by a fictional story of Russian roulette, in which a man is offered some 10 million or so for playing it. Put the gun to your temple and pull the trigger, if you die you lose obviously but if there’s no bullet in the gun’s chamber you will get to live a life of luxury and comfort from thereon without ever having to work again.
It’s a high reward, maximum risk scenario.
In the story, the man wins the money, shifts next to a wealthy lawyer who has made close to the same amount of money our man won, by working hard for 10+ years.
Two different paths, same outcome, but the major difference between them is the predictability of the later than the first one. In the first case, the man could have lost his life immediately whereas the lawyer would have simply made some different amount of money elsewhere.
So while there are innumerable ways by which the result of our one action can unfold and we can never figure which another way it could have gone and so we can just make deliberate choices that are positive and uplift us sanely, that way at least the probability of something good happening increases.
Our alternative paths become more secure and productive and we are not betting our lives on a game of Russian roulette.
So instead of overthinking, just take action in a good direction and let life unfold in its myriad ways.
You are always one decision away from changing your life completely
We have established that there are various biases acting on us in our decision-making process. I have mentioned only two of them but they give us the perspective required to understand the concept of biases.
A lot of ourself is betted against ourself, it takes great determination and will power to break free of our inert tendencies that we don’t even know are jeopardizing our growth in life.
In the alternative paths, while I mentioned an example with a negative connotation, I meant to tell you how our life is made up of possibilities that we don’t even contemplate.
Each action of ours is just pushing us into a labyrinth of scenarios that could actually happen.
From one cigarette to a drug addict is a real possibility and from one healthy choice to a fitness model is also a plausible probability.
Everything snowballs eventually.
If you are struggling to bring any big change in your life, then start with something tiny. I know you must have heard this a lot but it’s true. Truth is resounding.
In the entire process of bringing any change, patience is a huge virtue. Even though I find myself loathing it at times but I sure do understand that at least I am on my way. Can’t do anything much either.
Decision making can be done on a whim, on inspiration, and with careful planning.
In any case, make sure it’s for the good and that you first and foremost follow through with what you decide.
After all, you just have to decisively decide to do something to change your life completely.
If you are struggling to bring any big change in your life, then start with something tiny. I know you must have heard this a lot but it’s true. Truth is resounding. Share on X
Conclusion
I first wrote this article in June 2017, before that in May I had made a decision to launch my website and the ripples of both these decisions have led me to update this article now in November 2020.
Just that one decision of launching my website makes me keep myself accountable to the dream I have.
Without this website, I could have been lost and might not be as committed to writing and creating content in all the other forms that I do, with as much intention and deliberate action.
However far, just because this website exists I feel as much closer to my dream of creating a media company that will allow me to explore our world through my art, tell stories that I feel matter, and in the process inspire people to achieve sustainable success for themselves and the planet.
It’s a source of inspiration for me that came into existence because I decided to create it when inspiration struck.
Since then it has kept me on my toes, made me learn everything I should to run it better, and keeps pushing me to take it higher each day.
Self-inquiry and contemplation are a big part of the process too.
It’s not an obligation but an inspiration.
That is how I guess our dreams manifest one decision at a time.
For further reading, I suggest you check out the Self-help essentials on soulo, make sure you read the article on Pranayama, and drop a comment if you found this post or anything on soulo useful.
Do follow me on Instagram so that we could stay in touch that way. Eventually building a community of people that inspire each other. Cheers!
