Choosing yes wisely
Welcome to Love Mondays, a weekly newsletter designed as a 3-minute hit to fire up the other 10,077 minutes of your week.
Spoilt for choice or spoilt by choice?
It took me a long time to shift from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset. I used to say yes to every speaking gig, every networking opportunity, every possible chance to validate my worth. My face hurt from smiling while my head spun with ‘how the hell am I going to get all this done?’ Not this week!
We all have a finite amount of energy, time and bandwidth. Research tells us that adults make approximately 35,000 choices per day
. It’s no wonder that we suffer from ‘decision fatigue’. Our mediated world of algorithms and bias helps cut down on decision-making, but short-cuts our value systems on the way. Saying yes is just as much of a compromise as saying no… A choice is always a promise, ideally to our greater purpose.When you next make a choice, consider: what are you really choosing?
(Write it down)
Consider: expending less mental energy on choices that don’t really impact.
Practice: making time for values-aligned decisions on things that matter.
Decide to: raise the bar on what we say yes to.
Spinning the choice wheel
One of the many things I have learned from Layne Beachley is that when an opportunity is presented to you, you look at it, you feel it and you ask yourself, ‘Does this opportunity light me up?’ Over many conversations looking out at the waves off Manly, I’ve developed a choice wheel. Maybe you will find it useful too.
The ultimate choice is to frame our choices or be framed by them.
Love your Mondays
UNCTV Science, accessed online: http://science.unctv.org/content/reportersblog/choices#:~:text=Researchers%20at%20Cornell%20University%20estimate,remotely%20conscious%20decisions%20each%20day.
British Journal of General Practice, accessed online: https://bjgp.org/content/70/697/399.full