Making Life Binary…

I was recently just on a trip overseas for work and it’s always interesting when you start a new opportunity.

From the people you meet to the learning and understanding you have to develop from being involved in something, there is nothing quite like immersing yourself into it that allows you to grow and foster understanding at an exponential rate.

It’s similar to how there’s no better way to learn a language other than to go to that country and immerse yourself in it, the culture and the people.

Anyway, I often talk about how when we die we will always wish that the person who died ‘Rests in peace’ and if that is the goal at the end of life, why shouldn’t it be a goal we aspire to every day in our lives?

The key question is, how do we foster this ability to find ‘peace’ through the tumult of life and it’s ever changing nature, full of distractions both positive and negative?

I was having this conversation with a colleague whilst we were away and the concept that I always find myself coming back to is making life binary.

There are only 2 possibilities if we really consider it - to do something, or not to do something.

Generally the anxiety, or nervousness or over thinking really only happens when we are in the middle of making a decision.

Think of it this way - if you were deciding whether to enter a martial arts competition, making a big purchase, choosing what to study. All of these things chew us up as we try to decide how to proceed.

The rule I like to apply to this, is that if my line of thinking is a ‘maybe’, just make it a no. It is going to be much easier to make a decision and pivot from there rather than to stay in the stasis of indecision and waste time, energy and mental or emotional resources debating the idea in your own head.

Throughout all that energy expenditure, just consider it from a 3rd person’s perspective - did they notice the mental exasperation you were going through or did they only notice when you finally made a decision?

If we preserve our mental capacity to navigating the outcomes that come out of our decisions, we are at least still moving towards a direction.

The rate of decisions we make will actually determine our rate of progress, so by reducing the time we spend deliberating we actually will spend more time doing.

Action breeds outcomes.

So enjoy your day thinking of it as 0’s and 1’s, yes’ and no’s.

If it ain’t a hell yes… it’s a hell no.