It is often difficult to know exactly what to do. This is especially true when you decide to stop being a creature of habit and circumstance and decide instead to live a life of purpose and meaning. It may sound strange that deciding to live purposefully can leave you without a sense of direction. But it often does. Imagine that you always take the same route to work and then one day, you wake up and decide that you are going to take another road. Ah, but which one? And does it actually go where you want to end up. That's the quandary. Indecision. Procrastination. Doubt. Fear. All rear up whenever you are at a choice point. All serve to frustrate and impede your ability to know what to do and then actually do it. And just like that, you are back doing the habitual, back in the comfort zone, back with the known, even when you know it does not work to produce the results you desire to have in your life. Yet another opportunity to change has come and gone. All because you think you don't know what to do. So, here is my suggestion for what to do when you don't know what to do... Stop thinking about it. Get out of your mind. Let your heart make the decision. Or your gut. Instead of just trying to think your way through the decision making process; feel your way through it. What feels right? What is your gut instinct? Sure, it often makes sense to use the old Ben Franklin method-- list the pros on one side of a piece of paper and the cons on the other side and then go with the majority. That may help you to think about some possible course of action a little more clearly. But thinking something through doesn't always supply the right answer, or even supply the way to your best answer. It's been my experience that many people will actually think themselves right out of making the right decision. They know in their hearts that they should go a certain way, but they allow their mind to tell them otherwise. Listen up all you mindful people... How do you create a life that is both successful and fulfilling? Simple. You already know the answer. It is... FOLLOW YOUR PASSION. Passion is not a mental attribute; it is an emotional one. You don't think passion, you feel it. So, whenever you don't know what to do, here's what you do -- check in with how you feel about it. If it feels right, do it. If it doesn't feel right - don't. Now, I am not saying that you shouldn't use your mind. I am not suggesting that you stop using your critical thinking. I am saying that when your mind is not giving you a quick and definitive answer, then go with your gut instincts. Ask any winner in any field and most times, they'll tell you that: - they trusted their intuition; or - it just felt right, so they did it; or - they had a gut feeling; or - they had this burning desire to do it, despite the evidence; or - they somehow just knew what to do, without knowing how they knew. In other words, they were out of their mind :-) and into their heart. Trust your heart. It is wiser than your head. It knows what to do when you don't know what to do. |
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