Remember...the target IS the bulls-eye.
Should I take the job or not?
Is he/she “the one”?
Should we have attacked Libya?
Paper or Plastic?
In this latest, “greatest” modern age of ours, there is an awful lot of preoccupation with doing the “right thing”. Have you noticed that? It’s about “getting it right” all the time; inevitably, such short sightedness leads down some pretty dark paths.
This blog is about the laziness of indecision…the fine line between caution and impotence…the paralysis that results from over-analysis.
Life is not lived in the margins. The world is not a “safe” place. NOTHING is certain. After all, plenty of people don’t pay taxes and there are 8 billion people right now disproving the theory that everyone dies.
For as many ways information has helped advance the human condition, it has hindered as much human ambition. People won’t see a movie, frequent a new restaurant or check into a hotel unless their “favorite” web sites give them the thumbs up.
People are debating furiously about the decisions made by their leaders. A healthy debate is always a good thing. Conversely, a leader is only a leader when LEADING. Engaging the thoughts of others does not absolve ANYONE…the President, religious leaders, a parent, a soldier – ANYONE from the galvanizing moment when you must take action.
Results are a carefully concocted mixture of conception, forethought, planning, practice, execution and determination…followed by reflection and observation. Somewhere along this process in life, we are all confronted with the naysayers, curmudgeons, ne’er do wells and faux sophists who live life trying to steal second base with one foot planted on first.
The price we pay for this culture of slipshod attendance to the task at hand is second rate people in leadership positions, or first rate leaders who lose their boldness in the haze of desire for public acceptance.
The saying goes “do what is right, not expedient and forever wash your mind of all compromise”. This rings so deeply and truly because it is MUCH more important to compromise with others than yourself. After all, you’re the only “you” that you’ve got.
People agonize over dating, engaging and marrying the right person, yet the divorce rate grows ever higher each year. They comb the ratings for the safest new cars, only to get the recall notices the year after.
As Jimmy Buffet so eloquently stated: “indecision may or may not be my problem”.
I would put these two questions to you – the reader:
1) How much of your current life is a result of a preconceived plan of your own?
2) How many of the plans you made in younger years actually came to be?
Exactly. I thought so.
The real question remains…would you change it and have things any other way?
The ability to thrust yourself in to the unknown that is every breath in the gift of life is a direct reflection on your self-confidence…NOT your confidence in the environment, circumstances or fate.
You.
Just you.
So it is for a person, and so it should be for a group.
We (the USA) are now engaged in three major military conflicts halfway across the world. More than half a century later, we are a major presence in German, Japan, Korea and a dozen other countries where we have made war of one kind or another.
Were those involvements “right”, “safe”, or “victorious”? History alone may judge; and still we will never know.
Doing the right thing seldom comes with a medallion, certificate of achievement or promotion. It is in those moments when we do what is right because we KNOW it is right to US…our OWN selves – that we take shape as individuals. Yes, this shape will come with peaks and valleys as all life does. Better to live the life of your own design and choice than one cobbled from the formless fog of public acceptance.
I keep up with the life choices of my friends and loved ones (ok, they’re the same people) through modern technology every day. I am amazed at the diverse paths they have all taken. Some have gone down the road they predicted in personal and professional affairs with scant apparent deviance from their designs of yesterday. Others have zigged and zagged – tacking with the wind and riding the swells as the tide allows.
I wish all of them…and those friends I have yet to meet the best of conditions for their personal choices and the journeys which follow.
As Willie Wonka said “All I ask is a tall ship and a star to sail her by”. That’s about as specific a map as I want.
Live it.
Own it.
It’s yours.
Decide.
Peas,
J
Peas,
J
