Where to go to school, what to read, what to believe, what career/job/path to follow, who to marry/partner with, where to live, whether to look to buy/rent, kids/no kids, if kids, when/how many, comfort/necessity, pets/no pets, if pets dogs/cats/both…all of these things, and many others, too numerous to list here, are life altering decisions. How do you make those decisions? Do you close your eyes and leap into the waves? Do you make spreadsheets and examine every single data point? Do you seek input or do you simply look for affirmation of a decision you’ve already made but put it out there as if you wanted someone to give you advice, knowing full well, but not being willing to admit, that you have already decided? Do you weigh $$ against satisfaction/joy/inner peace?

I tend toward being overly analytical, and, when major decisions are afoot, angst filled about “what ifs”, I don’t know if that’s served me well, in fact, sometimes, it has stalled my vision and obscured the bigger picture. I’d like to say I’ve gotten better at a balance with age, but then when something massive looms on the horizon I spend restless nights tossing and turning, and having dreams (when I do drift off) loaded with Freudian anxiety episodes.

I have come to realize that there are only so many factors that are under your control and even then, there are more variables than even an HP-48GX can account for. Very similar to a round of golf, you can do everything right, you can line up, swing properly, know the yardage relative to how far you hit and pick the right club, make the perfect contact, and then, a gust of wind comes up that you didn’t expect and either you come up short and in the water, or it pushes you sideways into a trap, as angry and upset as you can get, there is nothing you can do about that other than to put it out of mind, know what it is that went wrong, realize you can’t take that stroke off your score, and do your best to make the next shot count.

So it is with major, life changing decisions that have no clear path, you need to think, take a breath, look for the rocks on the bottom, take the tide into account, count the waves in the set, but ultimately the only thing left to do is hold your breath and dive in.