Do it or don’t, you will regret both…

  “Marry, and you will regret it; don't marry, you will also regret it; marry or don't marry, you will regret it either way.” - Soren Kierkegaard

I’ve always loved this quote from Kierkegaard. It really shows the insignificance in most of our decisions. We toil and toil over the possible outcomes of things we generally have no way of predicting, most of the time worrying ourselves sick. The one thing I have found is that the best we can do is be as educated as possible on any contentious topic or option that we may be deliberating over, and then forget about it. We can dot all of our I’s and cross all of our T’s and even what seems like our best decisions end up punishing us somewhere down the line. 

So how do we ever decide anything? Miyamoto Musashi, famed Samurai from the late 1500s to early 1600s is claimed to have beaten anxiety. This is a huge feat for someone who as a Samurai had entered over what were essentially 62 death matches, I mean you gotta be a little bit nervous going into something like that, right? He had a very interesting philosophy about this; he said “To win any battle you must fight as if you’re already dead.” The first time I read this it was like I just struck gold. I myself train BJJ as well as Boxing and we all know the pre-fight/sparring nerves everyone gets. This new mentality has helped me get over the nerves associated with training as well as impacted my nerves and decisiveness when I make life decisions. Strangely it seems like a lot of our indecisiveness stems from fear. You fear the potential outcome of a wrong decision much more than the actual effect. 

This leads me to realize that there are no good options and no good decisions, just the most informed decision you can make at any time. The fear we feel is really just FOMO and self preservation. The takeaway is to be decisive. You will find something wrong in everything you say and do if you look hard enough. Make a decision and do it; it will always be better than doing nothing. Even if the decision is to do nothing… -Scott