You Can’t Steer a Parked Car

One of my intentions this year is to make more decisions more quickly, to take action, and to fail forward.  After all, you can’t steer a parked car.  

Default Over-Researching and Indecision

To say the least, this has not historically been my approach.  I typically over-research, over-prepare, and make sure I’m absolutely qualified before I act.  I’m the girl whose dad would spend hours (with saint-like patience) in the same store as I painstakingly went back and forth deciding which three-dollar vacation souvenir to purchase.  I’m the Business School graduate who reviewed the group paper just one more time to make sure I hadn’t missed any grammatical errors the first five times I read it through.  

There are absolutely ways my researching, preparing, deliberating, weighing all the pros and cons, attention to detail, and asking other – “more knowledgeable” -- people has served me.  In recent years, however, I’ve also become painstakingly aware how much I’ve held myself back with my need to make the “right” decision and not make a mistake. 

No more. 

What I’m Practicing Instead

  • I haven’t failed when something doesn’t go well; I’ve learned something.  By deciding or taking action, I gain valuable data – I learn what worked or didn’t, and how I feel about it.  This brings me closer to figuring out what I want and how to get there.  Without making decisions or taking action, I remain stuck in the same place with no new information.

  • While I’m sitting there weighing the pros and cons and debating my next move, someone else has already made a decision, acted on it, made a mistake, and learned from it. 

  • The way out of confusion is decision and action. 

  • If I fail at something, all it means is that I failed at the thing.  It doesn’t mean that I am a failure.

  • Information becomes powerful when you act on it.

  • Consider that there isn’t more safety in not making decisions. Not taking action is not insurance against regret.  Regret often comes from stagnation and inaction.

  • If I want to increase my rate of success, I must increase my rate of failure.

  • I can be the authority figure in my own life! I can have my own answers. There are so many benefits to looking inward for guidance instead of only looking to outside “experts.”

  • Have my own back when the decisions I make don’t go as I’d hoped.  If I beat myself up for a decision I’ve made, I’m going to stop making decisions.

I’m learning, folks. I’m making decisions, I’m taking action, I’m making mistakes, and I’m also having so. many. wins.

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Ask Better Questions

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The Practice of Being Present