This is the first thing I ever tweeted.
If you’re thinking, “Wow, that’s profound,” you’re right. I am deep.
The day after I tweeted that I also started my blog Stuff Christians Like.
At the time, I had no idea how life changing both of those decisions would be. I didn’t understand Twitter and just wrote a single verb about what I was doing. Stuff Christians Like was a silly site that I thought I would write about for a week and then quit. (I had a track record of doing that for years.)
Instead, Twitter became my biggest platform for sharing ideas with the world and Stuff Christians Like turned into a doorway to get a book deal, build two kindergartens in Vietnam and work for Dave Ramsey in Nashville.
On March 20, 2008 I couldn’t have possibly predicted that. I didn’t feel like I was making a perfect decision. I was just making the next decision. So then why, right now, do I worry about every decision I am facing in life?
Why do I get paralyzed in fear wondering what the ten-year outcome of the next decision will be? Why do I get stuck trying to make the best move? Why do I freeze up when options are presented to me? Why do I have such a dreadful fear of missing out?
Have you ever felt that way? It feels like you’ve hit a ceiling. You don’t know where to turn next. You’re in a corner and either can’t see a path out or can see too many paths and don’t know which one to pick.
I wrote my new book Do Over for moments like that, in our careers, in our relationships and our day-to-day lives. (You can pre-order it right here and get a copy emailed to you this week.)
Stuck dreams are the worst kind of dreams because they give you the illusion of progress. Wrestling with the decision gives you the false sense of forward motion even when all you’re doing is walking around in circles.
What I’ve learned over the years is that you never know the true impact of a decision until after you’ve made it. There’s no such thing as a perfect decision. And when fear tries to tell you there is, it’s real goal is to cripple you with indecision.
Don’t get stuck. Get brave. Be brave enough to admit you don’t know exactly where each decision will lead. Be brave enough to make a good decision today so you can learn from it and make a great decision tomorrow. Be brave enough to make a wrong decision. Be brave enough to apologize when you do.
And remember, bravery is a choice not a feeling.
[Tweet “Bravery is a choice, not a feeling. “]
You can’t wait until you feel brave enough to make a decision. You can’t wait until you have a perfect plan to make a decision.
You just have to make one, even if all you know how to do next is tweet the word “writing.”