Get on a train. Any train.
“Indecision steals many years from many people who wind up wishing they’d just had the courage to leap.”
(Doe Zantamada)
Get on a train, any train…
How many times have you come to a proverbial fork-in-the-road in your life?
I am going to assume the answer is A LOT. Even if you are five years old, you have already made a good bit of decisions. Ok, maybe not life altering decisions, but definitely choices.
We live in a time of human existence unlike any time before where most people have several choices at many different junctures in their lives. With all the choices available at any given moment, it is no wonder we become paralyzed and end up not making any decision at all. Just end up sitting in the train station watching this train or that train depart.
When I read a line from Khaled Hosseini’s book, “And the Mountains Echoed”, I was taken aback by the concept of decision-making and its relationship with fear. It turned the notion of why we choose this train over the other on its head.
“…but people mostly have it backward. They think they live by what they want. But really what guides them is what they’re afraid of. What they don’t want.”
Wait, what?!? I chose “x” out of fear NOT out of want?
Seizing this knowledge and using it to shine a very bright light on my past choices was illuminating, and to be completely honest, a little painful. What train did I not take and what adventure did I miss out on? What destination did I not explore? Who didn’t I get to meet?
These thoughts are enough to paralyze anyone from making a decision and getting on any train at all. Is this the right or wrong train for me?
But, that is the incorrect question to ask.
Instead, leave fear at the train station and ask yourself: what train do I truly want to ride on? What train is going to get me to a destination where I can evolve and live an amazing and fruitful life?
That answer will be the BEST decision. Not right or wrong, but the best.
Which train are you getting on?
