The most liberating thing I've learned about making decisions (big and small) is this…

Making a decision requires a death. 

To really choose something, means all other possibilities must die. 

I wrote a much longer entry about this super freeing topic for paid subscribers last week, but documenting a mini-snappy-version felt right too. 

Ordering food at a restaurant can feel harder than choosing a home (if you’re like me). “If I don’t get this, what if I never taste it? What if I don’t come back? What if I make the wrong choice? What if what I choose sucks?” This FOMO and also, FOMD (fear of mini death), means we order three things. We don’t enjoy any of them fully. We leave feeling stuffed and overburdened. 

When choosing where to root down (story of my life, hello, it me)… choosing a place and everyday lifestyle , means the death of alllll the other ones you dream about too. Sometimes, a life giving decision actually requires us to let other dreams die. When we can’t (at least temporarily), we try to choose them all. We all know, when we try to chase two rabbits, we don’t catch either one. 

When we have 13 brilliant ideas that could all genuinely do well, make an impact and fulfil us… it takes freakish discipline to simplify and let most of them die. So, we try to water them all, complicating our business, our creative energy, our days and our lives. 

Many of us are choice overloaded. This is a blessing, until it’s a curse. It’s a blessing, so long as we have discipline. It’s a blessing, so long as we understand the importance of everyday deaths and can make peace with them. 

This year, ‘have it all’ and ‘infinite possibilities’ are out. It drowns us. It confuses us. It distracts us.  Simple, narrow, less but better… are in. 

When we avoid the deaths, we overburden the life. X