This Soulgoal Missive was sent to my mailing list in 2002.
Keep your eyes and ears wide open – and your mouth closed, if you wish to acquire the habit of prompt decision.
Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich
I invited my girlfriend on a company trip I won. Having a choice of select resorts, I chose to be on a ten-ton houseboat on the Colorado River at the Nevada-Arizona border. We were fortunate that the boat malfunctioned immediately after departure, so we traded it in for a five-ton model.
Neither of us knew anything about boating, including how to read a mariner’s map. All the squiggly lines representing the shoreline looked the same, so the map was no help.
To share how inexperienced we were, our boat floated away because we didn’t anchor it properly while visiting Hoover Dam. Someone caught and secured it in our absence. Our fun and memorable trip was filled with adventures like this.
While steering the boat, I watched aghast as I headed for a solid mass of land straight ahead. I had to change direction quickly, but I couldn’t tell if the river turned to the right or left because the view was obscured.
The boat was big and heavy. I felt if I didn’t make my decision quickly, I never would have enough time to change course and would surely run into land.
Which way to go? It looked like the river turned left so I turned the boat in that direction. I was wrong; it was just a tiny inlet. If I thought I barely had time to turn the boat before, surely I would crash now. I quickly turned the wheel to go in the other direction… and had plenty of time to make the adjustment.
Over many years I’ve observed if I relax and trust this process, while prepared to act quickly if needed when the appropriate time comes, I make better decisions – without the panic and worry. I learned that if I am alert and in the moment, I have all the time I need to make a decision when the information comes.
Those who reach decisions promptly and definitely, know what they want, and generally get it.
Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich
Another incident occurred during my first television interview in my early twenties with a man seasoned in appearing on the media. He told me later that before speaking he always felt his inner juices begin to flow, but he didn’t feel them before that show.
However, as soon as I began to answer the commentator’s first question, his energy started to flow. Without this initial incentive to speak and knowing his experience, I probably would have let him do the talking, and he could have taken over the show.
I learnedwhen the time comes, we have what it takes to do what we have to do. The brain may want to be comforted that everything follows an order it thinks it should. However, the flow is there when we need it, not when we think we need it.
We were prepared to speak; after that it was a matter of trusting the process.
A third lesson came while on a road trip with a friend. We came to a fork in the road, a turning point. Rather than stop to determine where we needed to go, he arbitrarily chose a direction and proceeded to go the wrong way at 60 miles an hour. It took a while to escape the highway maze, return to where we started, and get on the right track.
I learned if I come to a fork in the road and don’t know where I’m going, stop and assess my options rather than blindly waste my time on a 50-50 guess.
Decisions. If we’re not attached to the way we want things to go or the way we think they should go, answers come in their own way and in their own time, especially when we are prepared and ready to act.
Lessons I learned:
- You have all the time you need to make an appropriate decision when you have the information.
- There is a flow to making decisions. When the timing is right the flow is there, and sometimes not a minute sooner.
- Be prepared to act quickly when the information comes.
- Rather than guessing, check your map or plan to see where you’re going. Take necessary steps to prepare.
- Relax and trust the process.
Your challenge, if you choose to accept, is to consider a decision you would like to make. Apply the above points to strategize how to make it and then relax with the process KNOWING that you will make the right decision at the right time.
With a zest for Life,
Virginia
Success Thought
When he approached a fork in the road, Robert Frost in his poem “The Road Not Taken” wrotethathe “looked down one as far as he could.” Facing his decision of which way to go, he said:
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
If you’d like help with decisions to move forward,
contact me for a free consultation at:
virginia@soulgoals.com
I work with people who choose to share
their gifts or business in a BIGGER way
but don’t know how, feel stuck or could
use new tools or support.
I help them ignite their Soul’s goals
and be richly compensated doing what
they love.
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