Everyone has been there. You know pretty well what needs to be done, but you can't get it done. You know it's the right thing to do, but you can't make yourself do it. You can't get out. Even though you think about the situation a lot, you don't really do anything about it. You wait...you wait for life to take care of things for you. Then you take what happened as it is. There are times when this approach might be fine or even the best choice, but most of the time we just don't have the courage to choose.
All it comes down to is courage, you know. At least, I know that's true for me. I have started looking at myself when I can't decide what to do. I've learned that fear keeps me from acting on my own, even when it's clear that one thing would be better for everyone. When I think about the "possible" results, I can't bring myself to move forward. What about the second thing? Well, that could also make things too hard to handle, so I don't do that either. I can't stay in this place. One or the other must be done. I keep coming back to the same fork in the road, but I never decide which way to go. I hope that the next time I come back, I'll have a better idea of what to do. Sad to say, not much clarity comes. When I finally do something, a lot more damage has been done than was necessary. This damage could have been avoided if I had been brave enough to do something sooner.
Well, one could say that more damage isn't always done. That's right. Still, at the very least, when you become a victim, you lose control of the situation. You say, "That can't be right." What if you make a decision quickly that you end up regretting? Shouldn't you think things through before you do something stupid? Once again, you're right. Most people, though, think about it for a lot longer than they should. If there's something else that should come first, that's fine, but for most people, that's not the case either. They just don't want to do what needs to be done.
Taking charge of your life means making important decisions. It takes skill on its own. It seems like some people are better at it than others. It seems like these people were born with this skill. For others, it needs to be worked on. You need to work on it. You need to get your "decision-making" muscles in shape. You can't afford to just sit around and do nothing. You have to face your fears. You have to face your fears of failing and of missing out on chances.
Ironically, the best way to learn how to act when the situation calls for it is to use a more "passive" resource. It's letting go. When you can learn to accept life, you can do more and not let fear stop you. Consider it. You can't do everything yourself. This is true. You can't see the future (unless you're psychic, in which case you can skip this). In life, you will make mistakes, but you can learn from them and move on. If you can accept all of this, you'll be well on your way to being able to make hard choices.
Acceptance isn't that hard. You always do that. Do you drive? Well, if you do, you have to assume that the driver coming the other way is not a crazy person who is going to crash into you. If you've ever crossed the street at a traffic light or gotten in a car with someone else driving, you've done a lot of accepting. How do you do it? Well, you can't do anything else. You need to get where you want to go. If you don't want to get in a car because you're afraid of crashing, you won't get there. You have to take the risk because you think you have almost no other choice. Well, how about using that willingness to accept your choice? There's nothing you can count on in life (generally speaking). You might have made the wrong choice, but at least you had the guts to make one. And who's to say that if you had gone the other way, you wouldn't have been hit by lightning? You just can't know for sure that if you hadn't done what you did, things would have been better. Also, accept this. It will make you feel good. You are already halfway to your goal if you trust me and have faith.
So put yourself out there. Choose. Don't let things happen to you. You can do so much more when you know that you are in the place you are because of the choices you have made.
