Decide to Dare

A few weeks ago, Liz Strauss, one of my social media role models, said, “Decide has the same etymology as suicide patricide, genocide, fratricide.  When you decide, “you kill off all other options.” While I shrank at associating the word decide with these repugnant “cides”, she’d gotten my attention.  And I found myself wondering am I indecisive?  Because if you were to ask me an often dreaded job interview question, “What do you want to be doing five years now?”  If I were honest, I’d have to say, I don’t know. 

In fact, I often compare my approach to life as being similar to that of an e-mail packet. When you hit the send button, the e-mail can get routed any number of different ways.  If it goes one way, and one checkpoint is congested, the packet will get re-routed, again and again.  The wonder of it is, and what I needed to remind myself after my conversation with Ms. Strauss is that with rare exception the e-mail does arrive, and in seconds.  It may not know how, but once we push the send button, the e-mail knows exactly where it wants to go.

Source:  istockphoto

So what decisions have I made?

For starters -- I've decided I'll strive to do good and be good, to mother well, and to encourage others to dream.  In making these decisions, I’ve cut off all other options, including the option to fail. 

You have no doubt made your own big decisions.

Said C.S. Lewis, “Do not dare not to dare.”

What have you decided?

Comments

[Yes! :)]

Short, concise, sweet, wonderful, inspiring and thought provoking. I love it!

[Michelle Anthony]

For me, there is one phrase that I look to, one way of living that I strive for, when making most other decisions:

Live courageously.

It does not define WHAT decisions I make, but it does define HOW I make them, or how I pursue them. Sometimes I am surprised by what I realize is the most courageous choice: it is frequently not the biggest, most obvious, nor easiest one. It is often a realization that unfolds, and there are times my path needs correction because I have lost touch with this overarching goal, or because the choice that looked courageous at the start winds up not being so.
Sometimes following this path is the most difficult choice of all...

[Whitney]

So true Michelle!

Sometimes the most courageous choice isn't the obvious, seemingly bold one.

Thanks for the reminder.

[Maria]

I was so surprised to read you don't know what you want to be doing in five years. Yet you accomplish so much! It gives me hope.

[Elizabeth Keeler]

Having the courage the "kill" options that we know aren't right for us and move forward, trusting that we'll get there. That's what I got from this. So perfectly pertinent to my life this very second. Thanks again for a little burst of mid-day inspiration!

[Blaire]

Isn't it more fun to not know what you'll be doing in 5 years? I think the unknown is wonderful -- it's lovely to think of all the possibilities out there, and then it's even more fun to pick and choose among the options that assemble as possibilities become more concrete. I always think it's interesting and telling to see what I pick, it helps me learn more about myself.

I love making decisions, I think it's the best form of self-discovery and self-expression.

[Whitney]

Elizabeth and Blaire -

I appreciated both of your perspectives. It conjures up visions of a jungle explorer, forging a path -- and puts a very positive light on this process.