Episode 35 - Ask Yourself This the Next Time You're Faced with a Major Decision

I’m going to share one of my favourite decision making tools with you today.

It’s something that I’ve used for years that has helped me make life changing decisions
-- from walking away from a 6-figure salary
-- to leaving a marriage
-- to traveling as a solo mom with 2 kids for months at a time
-- to starting an online business (something I thought I’d never do)

Ready?
Let's dive in :)

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Transcript

I’m going to share one of my favourite decision making tools with you today.

It’s something that I’ve used for years that has helped me make life changing decisions
-- from walking away from a 6-figure salary
-- to leaving a marriage
-- to traveling as a solo mom with 2 kids for months at a time
-- to starting an online business (something I thought I’d never do)

And this tool that I’m going to share with you is actually a phrase. It’s a concept. It’s a metaphor.

It’s this: Go as far as you can see, and when you get there, you’ll see further.

It’s a quote that’s been attributed to Thomas Carlyle and here’s how I use it.

Imagine you’re walking down a path. The path is meandering, there are trees on either side, and you can’t see where it’s going. You have no idea where you’ll end up.

As you walk forward, you see there are multiple routes to take. You could go to the left, to the right, or straight ahead.

You’re not sure which way to go, but you make a decision to go to the left, knowing you can turn around at anytime and choose a different option.

As you start to walk, you come around a bend, and see beautiful rose bushes on the side of the path --- you hadn’t seen these before. You didn’t even know these existed when you started! How beautiful.

You continue to walk, enjoying the smell, and being surrounded by these lovely flowers. And you stumble upon another path. You consider going straight, but the path to the right contains more rose bushes and it looks so lovely.

So you head in that direction. And as you walk, the path narrows, and all of the sudden your legs are brushing against the bushes and the thorns are scratching your legs. You had no idea the path would be like this! You couldn’t know this was going to happen before you headed in this direction.

The scratching of your legs becomes more and more unbearable, so you decide to turn around and head down a different path.

As you take each step forward, you see more. You get more information and more clarity. You discover things you couldn’t possibly know before starting.

Each step gives you a new perspective.

The worst thing you an do when you’re making a decision is to stay stuck. To stop and make assumptions about what’s coming rather than moving forward along the path – any path.

There is no “wrong” path

Each path brings you clarity – even if you end up taking what seems like the wrong path and getting scratched by a bunch of rose bushes, you now know not to take that path. That’s clarity!

You now know to try a different route. That’s clarity!

You can change your mind, back-track, start over, at any time.

No decision is ever permanent.

We so often assume we know what the path in front of us will bring. We assume we can’t afford it, we don’t have the time, we’ll probably fail….

But we don’t actually know that, do we?

We don’t get the numbers or the exact costs. We don’t break down how much time it will take and then look at our schedules to see where that’ll fit in. We don’t look at what it takes to succeed.

We don’t get all of the information.

We decide we can’t do it before we start.
We get overwhelmed at all of the possibilities without considering whether those possibilities are even probable.

We stand there at the start of the path, speculating about what’s to come.

But the truth is, we have no idea until we actually start walking.

Go as far as you can see, and when you get there, you’ll see further.

You don’t have to have all of the information before you start. You’ll collect it along the way.

As you take steps forward, you’ll gain new insights and clarity. So take those steps forward.

Each step forward will give you a new perspective, a new vantage point from which to see things. More of the picture will be shown to you.

So go.
As far as you can see.
When you get there, I promise, you’ll see further.

That’s how you make massive decisions and big life changes.

That’s how you decide to leave your job, start a business, pull your kids out of school, travel full-time, or walk away from an unfulfilling marriage.

One step at a time.