Hard choices
Sometimes it’s hard to say yes.
Sometimes it’s hard to say no.
Sometimes the hardest thing is to begin something.
And sometimes the hardest thing is to end something.
Sometimes the only thing to do next is to just keep going.
And sometimes the only thing to do next is to let it go.
A landscape of uncertainty
Choices often come coupled with uncertainty.
Sometimes you sit in the dark, wondering what to do next.
Sometimes you weep at the feet of Providence, begging for a set of ordained instructions, or a map to your destiny.
Sometimes the sign you’re waiting for isn’t coming.
Sometimes the heavens won’t deliver a solution or an answer or a miracle.
Sometimes you just have to make the decision.
Sometimes you just have to have the hard conversation.
Or take the leap of faith.
Choice is difficult by design
Choice is difficult by design.
Because the choice is a crossroads. An intersection of options that can escalate into a crisis of uncertainty.
Confronting the choice demands that you address the thing you’ve been circumnavigating like a perilous outcropping. It stops the music on the dance of evasion and challenges you to square off with the thing you’ve been avoiding, postponing, putting off, pushing down or sidestepping.
Sometimes it’s a question of how badly you want it.
Sometimes it’s a question of how deeply you don’t.
Sometimes it’s a question of how much you believe.
Sometimes it’s a question of how sincerely you crave freedom.
Sometimes it’s a question posed between equally valid options.
Sometimes it’s a question that’s not a question but a pretence – one option masquerading as two.
Sometimes it’s a question of whether you’re going to be soft and gentle and good to yourself by being firm and fierce with others.
Sometimes it’s a question of what you think you’re worth.
Procrastination is futile
Whatever the nature of the choice, procrastination is futile. If you avoid the choice, it will hang around, patiently waiting for an opportunity to insert itself into the curriculum of your growth.
When you finally face it, when you’re called to commit to an answer, your confidence might evaporate. You might feel adrift. Your voice may shake and your bones may rattle in response. Your hand may hesitate as you draw a boundary or sign on the line. You might play a few raucous rounds of second-guessing. But all of this hesitation, wavering, alternating and waffling is unnecessary.
Because whatever the choice – these things are (paradoxically) true:
- You already know the right choice for you.
- The wrong choice is also the right choice.
- Freedom is on the other side of the choice.
Don’t be held hostage by hesitation.
So don’t be held hostage by hesitation. Choose. No matter how robust the resistance seems. Because the nature of progress is to move through resistance. And then liberate yourself by committing to the choice and where it takes you next.
Challenging choices are a call to rise up.
Challenging choices are presented not to bury you, but to elevate you. To strengthen your resolve. To clarify your aim. To refine your fluency in the language of your instincts.
Committing to your choice is a doorway into the future. A choice is a call to dive through the resistance, commit to what’s next and rise up to meet it.
So make that damn choice. You got this.
