The real danger of indecision | Deeper | Post

I often fall prey to indecision.

The reason for this is because my biggest fears often centre around opportunity cost: if I choose option A, what will be the real loss as a result of not choosing option B, C or D.

In an ideal world I would choose "all the above": A, B, C and D then, in that case, I would not have to worry about the loss I may experience as a result of not choosing the other options.

The only thing is that I don't live in an ideal world. Under some rare, unfortunate circumstances, I have found myself in the situation where as a result of indecision, I experienced the ultimate loss: The loss of self.

Because in the event when we cannot be courageous enough to make a choice and face the consequences of making the choice, we choose to lose control of ourselves altogether. We basically tell life to choose for us as we are incapable of choosing for ourselves. Unfortunately, though, life never chooses well for us. And at the end, this only leads to feelings of great despair and despondence at the realisation that not only did we lose the chance to make the decision, but we also lost control of ourselves.

One author explained it by making an analogy of a horse that was confused between choosing to drink water or choosing to eat the grass first. It turned it's head from one object to the next, and back again. Eventually, the horse died from starvation because it could not make up its mind.

Fortunately, I have grown to be a lot more aware of my way of operating and have started to put measures in place to 'call myself out' when I find myself wondering for too long, or when I start searching too hard for the perfect choice. I've learnt that perfection is something that only exists in my mind, and that I need to be a lot more graceful with myself and the decision I make. So from time-to-time, you will hear me say the following to myself: "Just choose! Chose any!"

Because, I finally realise that the real power lies in making the decision.

If at any point I realise that I made the "wrong" decision, then I can use the acquired knowledge as I pivot into option E.

This works out a lot better than no decision, no knowledge, and never learning of the newly discovered option E.