The Only Way To Grow Is By Moving Forward
Life is a maze of decisions.
From the moment we open our eyes to the moment we close it again to dream our night away, we are constantly making decisions. Small or big, important or irrelevant. Anything we do is a decision. A decision leads to another decision. From the breakfast you choose to eat, the job you choose to apply for, the people you decide to hold close to in your circle to the things that hold you back from doing certain things. For most of the part of the time, we don’t even know what we are doing with our lives. Sometimes it feels like we are constant wandering in this terrifying gigantic maze where the only certainty is the sun, which goes up each morning and goes down each night. Just like that time continues to tick on no matter if it suits your schedule or not.
It’s scary to move forward when we don’t have a mapped out plan to follow with. Let alone a backup one. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t scary in a case when you do you have a carved out plan, to begin with. Because, as much as we want to have our life in our hands, it isn’t possible to pinpoint everything down the road. Our vision only goes so far as our eyes allow it, in other words: fortune tellers are bullshit, but of course you already knew that.
The thing with decisions is that there are two types in a broad sense, these are:
1. Decisions with follow-up / execution / action
2. Decisions without follow-up or action
Lovely people, avoid type two by all means! Pull the plug as soon as you sense one of the earliest symptoms, which is a tendency to procrastination in the form of making up excuses once the moment comes closer to execute the decision. Those who know deep down that they wouldn’t follow up always has something to say back to defend themselves because they need something to stand on to support them without having the feeling that they had let themselves down once again. No one wants to feel like a failure. No one wants to be someone whose words doesn’t mean anything at all in the end because words only have meaning when you add action to it. It is an easy sum to calculate, but in practice, it isn’t that clear and easy like 1+1 = 2
Decision + action = guaranteed success
What’s more occurring when you follow through is actually:
Decision + action ≠ desired result
So, again. Why do some of us make decisions without execution? Because as I mentioned before, we have too much pride for our own good, we don’t like the idea that we can fail if we do take action and it results in another scenario we had in mind. You may agree: ‘’what’s the use in taking action when there is no guaranteed desired result?’’
Well..
Bear with me, I have another sum for you.
A decision with no input = a decision with no value or use. It’s basically no decision at all you could say. It’s actually even worse than no decision at all. All those energy and time that is put into finally making a decision has come to a waste when you don’t execute it. Simple as that. Instead of asking the question, what’s the use in taking action when there is no guaranteed desired result, ask:
‘’What’s the use in making a decision if you don’t do shit about it?’’
Making a final decision (I’m talking about big ones here) ask for time, physical energy, mental energy, money (in some cases), considerations, loads of pep talks and patience.
It doesn’t happen overnight, it has been thoroughly been think through to get to the point that you made it final by, for example making these following big decisions.
1. To apply for university 2. To work on your relationship 3. To write a book
But what actually happens when you don’t follow up?
1. To apply for university (decision) without actually attending the classes (no follow up)
2. To work on your relationship (decision) without taking effort and the needed steps to move in the direction of working on a relationship ( no follow up)
3. To write a book (decision) without writing it (no follow up) but deems to tell everyone about it (not effective action)
See what happens when there is no follow up. Those big decisions suddenly don’t seem to matter anymore. You could have put your energy in something else then. When your mind is making final decisions, it kept these tabs open in case there is a follow-up moment. It takes up unnecessary space in your mind and keeps you subconsciously under stress. When you are unsure whether to proceed a decision or not and it already has taken you a lot of time to do it, then break it off (for the time being). It’s no use to put these decisions under your name and suffer from it.
All in all,
We can only grow by moving forward with our decisions.
Tracing our steps back can let us revive old mistakes while making a long-term stop terrifies us to go deeper into the maze of life. Thus, not making any progress. Tell me, what’s even more terrifying; knowing you are forever stuck at the same spot or taking the risk of getting lost and hurt on your way? Let your courage be greater than your fear. You may come across some things along your way which you have never even imagined about.
Life is a maze of decisions – taking the ”correct” way right away or ending up in a detour.
It doesn’t matter because that’s the whole idea behind a maze; discovery in every corner.
But only when you move forward – so don’t put those so-called decisions without intended action on hold, throw them out – do something else and let those unpredictable outcomes take you to places you have never even dared to think about. Our actions may not guarantee exactly want we wanted in mind, but at least you are brave enough to let yourself fall into the unknown: life in full spectrum. Let’s discover every part of the maze within our ability.
We can only grow by moving forward with our decisions.