Take it.
Sage advice from one of baseball’s most eccentric characters, Yogi Berra.
I suspect that wasn’t exactly the wisdom you were looking for. So let me ask you, what did you picture when you first read the phrase, “fork in the road”?
Did you see a single path splitting into two? Maybe you associated it with making a major decision in your life. A choice that, if made hastily, could lead to the wrong destination.
Then the dreaded what if’s come into play.
Your brain rejoices knowing that his coup has been successful; he now controls your entire decision making operation.
He implements martial law with only one rule: think… a lot.
Some studies believe the human brain produces anywhere from 20,000 to 80,000 thoughts a day (how they determine that is beyond me, but nonetheless that is a ton of thinking).
But it’s not just the quantity of thinking that we do; it’s the intensity of our thinking that can be very taxing on our body.
Have you ever mulled over a decision for so long that your brain started to physically hurt? Eventually you came to a decision but were too tired to do anything about it.
In essence, you did nothing. No action was taken, other than deciding what actions to take.
You’re exhausted and you never even lifted a finger.
Don’t get me wrong, planning and analysis is important, but to the point that it makes us completely worn out and incapable of action is a waste of our resources.
The most taxing decision lies in the belief that one choice is right and one choice is wrong.
Do your best not to see it like that – right and wrong. Different choices and different actions merely lead to different experiences. Who knows what’s really down one path or the other?
For many of the life changing decisions we encounter, we’ve already made our choice long before the choice had to be made; our values and beliefs have chosen for us.
“Why do we have to listen to our hearts? Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your treasure.”
- Paulo Coelho
So, mull over the pros and cons, analyze the potential outcomes, and even play out the various scenarios in your head if you want. You’ll be spending much more energy than is necessary, because the decision has already been made.
The next time you come to a fork in the road, pause for a moment, briefly examine the paths that lie before you, then bend over and pick up that shiny utensil.
After all, no matter the choice you make you’ll need to eat somewhere down the road.
Enjoy The Journey
I like the ironic tone with the overarching seriousness attached. If only right and wrong were such a clear-cut dichotomy without gray area, it might rid us of intellectual stimulus.
Two mantras I try to live my life by:
(1) Over-thinking, over-analyzing separates the body from the mind.
(2) I’ve done the math enough to know the dangers of our second-guessing.
Every time my synapses fire and send those action potentials, I know it cannot be good. We all have a set of principles that are engrained in our being, but every decision I make seems to be too calculated. I want to make whimsical decisions, but my mind is always five steps ahead with if-then decision trees calculated with probabilities of outcomes.
I would never wish that on anyone. There has to be an optimal amount of brain activity without going crazy, and perhaps one day I will figure it out.
You’re absolutely right with your first statement: there is no clear cut right and wrong; it’s all a matter of interpretation. Which only supports the idea that who is to say the decision you make is right or wrong? Of course some choices will lead you to your desired destination faster, and some slower, but often times we only find out that information once we’ve chosen a route and gone down it. Then we beat ourselves up because it appears we went the wrong way; it’s not fair to use hindsight as a measuring stick of success.
Now, if you continue to make the same decision over and over looking to attain different results, maybe it’s time you started looking at exactly what principles are engrained in your being…
You can always change them, believe me.
You can always change anything – through slow, simple, and consistent action.