When everything else says, go, doubt says, stop.
A friend of mine has a big belief that people don’t do those things that they fear. He thinks fear is the most dangerous of all the beasts. Like an addiction, fear moves slowly, taking over a little bit, then a little more. When you are 95% sure, then the remaining 5% is doubt. Doubt is ok. Doubt and weighing options is why we can advance. Doubt, worry, caution – they all have a role in life.
And then at some point, you just have to let all of them go.
Just let the other 5% go.
Just let it go, man.
The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.
~ Maimonides
Just decide. When you are 95% sure of your decision, then let me tell you something, you are sure of your decision. It’s better to make the hop. It’s better to act than to spend the day, the hour, the minute CONCERNED about not deciding. Concerned?! Who wants to spend his life concerned?
“What did you do in your life?”
“Well, I spent a lot of time beign concerned… and, um, I spent a lot of time worrying too. Some good worrying time. And then I accomplished this, this, and this.”
Who wants to spend time being concerned? Yes, yes, yes, YES! There are things that take a long time to figure out, but then once you’ve figured them out…
JUMP.
Do. Act. Live.
That’s all I mean. Don’t spend a significant part of your brainspace worrying about the 5% outlier effect. Act. Live.
Making a decision was the most important thing that my favorite professor in business school always told us as students to do, “Make a decision. The CEO needs to make firm decisions fast.”
And the most important thing after you are at the 95% sure threshold, and you are about to jump… don’t look back. Don’t WASTE your life in saying, “Well, I did have that 5% that I wasn’t certain about, so maybe that’s why this entire project went wrong.” No, that’s not why.
Once you make the decision to go, then just go. It’s as if you mentally rip away from all the disputing quotes in your head that are holding you tied to the mental torture cahmber of doubt and concern. Just go. And make an active decision that if you look back on this decision, it’s something you wanted to go into. It’s a path you want to take. Don’t sabotage your success by turning back, and looking over your shoulder. You will turn into salt if you’re looking back and not forward. Even the peacock faces forward these days. :)
Agreed. I have actually taken some pretty scary steps in my life, sometimes alone, sometimes with my husband. But everytime I found that ‘there is magic in boldness’ (Who was it that said that?) and that “Just do it” is *so* true.
Things fall into place if you trust they will…and often even if you don’t have that fait. Leap, bugger the looking, just leap!
Love this, Grim! That quote is (I’ve heard mistakenly) attributed to Goethe.
THAT IS SO PART OF IT! Grim, I completely agree! Leap. When you “just about know,” you actually already know more than enough.