Two words of advice

A consultant friend of mine called me recently to ask if we could catch up as he wanted some advice. He was facing what he saw as a difficult decision. He had two possible business options he could pursue but was unsure which way to go. As he looked at the two options he could see pros and cons for both. From time to time we are all faced with decisions where we must choose one path over another. As we approach these forks in the road we can feel like this will be a seminal and life altering moment. We believe that potentially the decision to go left or right could hold huge consequences and as a result people can often feel particularly anxious about making the right decision.

This was my friend’s dilemma; he had become stuck, immobilised, and unable to make a decision for fear of making a mistake and choosing the wrong option. The fact is there are few decisions you will ever make in your life that will cause irreparable damage. There are no guarantees for success, so the potential for making the 'wrong choice' always exists, but if you become immobilised by the options in front of you and simply do nothing, what ever opportunities had opened up will soon close, and with them any chance for success.

I could boil my advice to my friend down to two words – ‘Do Something’. Agonising over trying to make the perfect choice is a waste of time and energy. When you are faced with two options that have an equal number of positives and negatives, just pick one. I couldn’t promise him that everything would workout perfectly no matter which option he chose. What I could promise was the fastest way to get to what he wanted was to do something – anything. What is critical is to stop procrastinating and take some action.

If you have been torn between going in one direction or another, pick one and do something today. You’ll be glad you did.

Keep Firing.