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Ready for a rant?
I recently watched a video of a guru in the self-help world, describing her recommended process for making a decision.
Okay, so I’m intrigued, as the topic of decision making is one I personally love since everything we do, have and are in our lives is the result of our decisions.
Back to our guru gal…I watched as she outlined her process, which centered on checking in with your energy about the decision and “choosing the option that felt light and easy.”
Seriously?
My jaw dropped. Expecting the right decision to be the light and easy one is a recipe for creating avoidance and denial, and cultivating what I call “low decision IQ”.
There is an abundance of situations in your life and business that require you to make decisions. Some will feel difficult or painful, yet are still authentic and honor your values, upleveling your spirit and your integrity in the process.
While I’m not saying that every decision has to be full of drama or take hours to research before coming to a conclusion, what I am saying is that taking the light and easy road will only lead you to decisions that keep you stuck in disempowerment and limit your ability to grow into the extraordinary woman you’re meant to be.
For example, recently I faced these decisions.
Situation #1: What do I do about the friend who has zero boundaries, keeps making one bad choice after another (creating chaos and drama in her life) and disrespects my time?
On a scale of 1-10 in terms of difficulty (10 being the toughest) this situation rates a 10.5!
Situation #2: In meeting with my financial advisor I’m presented with the opportunity to move some of my savings nest egg — which is getting zero percent interest — over to a 3 year deposit account where I’ll get a nice return as long as I don’t touch a penny of the money for 3 years.
Okay, so using the same rating scale this one sounds like it should be less than 1 on the difficulty meter, but the idea of not being able to get to my money for the upcoming years without paying a penalty makes me a little squeamish and triggers old “but what if something happens??” feelings of potential doom lurking around the corner. (Irrational, I know, given the success of my business but I want to be perfectly transparent with you). So this one jumps up to a rating of 6.
Ready to take a closer look at where the “light and easy road” would lead me?
Situation #1: Remember my friend? The one with no boundaries and an utter disregard for other peoples’ time, including mine. Light and easy would be to skip addressing the problem, making the decision that “it will all work out somehow…I can just feel it”.
Situation #2: And the financial decision? Light and easy would be to do nothing, figuring “the money is fine where it is, and this way, I don’t have to fill out any of those annoying forms or worry that I might need the money in a pinch.”
Can you guess what I did instead? Let’s find out…
Situation #1: I decided to address the issues with my friend, letting her know that her choices where up to her, but they were impacting me, which I wasn’t comfortable with. When nothing changed I let her know that while I cared about her deeply, I could no longer have her chaos in my life and I ended the friendship.
While not a light and easy decision to make, it was a decision that honors my integrity. By standing up for my boundaries I strengthened my self-worth and deepened my connection to valuing myself.
Situation #2: Rather than ignoring a great opportunity I reminded myself that in an extreme emergency I could still get access to the money in the longer term investment. Plus, by moving the money from my regular savings account I was creating a ‘gap’ that I could get excited about filling with more savings. The decision made, I asked my financial advisor for help on filling out the forms, sent off a check and felt awesome about making a financial decision from a grown-up mindset.
Ladies, “light and easy” decisions are best left for deciding whether to have pizza or enchiladas for Friday night dinner.
The rest of the time? Make decisions based on what will help you achieve the results you want. Every decision you make from this place of clarity and integrity adds grace and ease to your life, which is the ultimate way of creating joy!
