Run With The Flow
Welcome to Issue 89 of Yath’s Blogletter, a newsletter where we explore mindful self-growth and learn to navigate life.
Dear friends,
One of my terrible traits is that I'm risk-averse. This has had its benefits, particularly in my career as a doctor, but I think it has also held me back from realising my true potential and unlocking greater levels of personal growth.
I have a bad habit of pondering, weighing up, and never truly deciding. I can go one for cycles and cycles of pondering over a specific scenario, then get tired of thinking, and give up on making a decision.
Formally, they call this analysis paralysis.
Whilst a degree of analysis would be good in most scenarios and particularly important in key life decisions like buying a house, over-analysis can be the reason we never reach the next level.
A lot of decisions we make in life will be bad decisions and yes those decisions will come with consequences. However, most consequences are likely to be insignificant in the bigger picture.
For example, let's say you go all in and write a newsletter for two years. After two years of consistent posting, let's say the newsletter fails to take off. But you've got proof of work, evidence of it not working out for you, and maybe a few new skills and experiences under your belt. Was this a bad decision?
But let's say you never got started writing your newsletter. Two years later, you would have zero proof of work, zero evidence of whether it worked, and zero new skills developed. So, was this a worse decision than the former? It makes you think.
One silent contributor to risk aversion is subtle scaremongering. As humans and as a society, we're taught from a young age to seek stability and steadiness. We're tuned psychologically to opt for careers that provide a stable, regular income over 'freelance' or 'entrepreneurial' methods. Our brains are wired to conform and adjust rather than to stand bold and make decisions that go against the grain.
Another silent contributor to risk aversion is the paradox of choice. In an online environment where information is abundant, the antidote to any exciting new decision is just a google search away. For every decision we want to make, we can easily find convincing content online as to why we should not be making that exact choice.
A great way to become less risk averse and to combat precipitators is to ask yourself, what is the worse that could happen? If the worst isn't detrimental to your life or to make ends meet then I would think it's a fairly non-risky decision.
Secondly, give yourself a confined amount of time to make a decision. If I was only given X hours to make a reasonably important decision I think I might have overall succeeded in more things by now. But, because I have unlimited time, I end up making no decision at all and therefore make no progress.
For the last 2 years, I've been pondering about whether to sell a digital product. Had I pulled the trigger and made a product, I could have tested my theory by now. But on I go with my cycles of pondering. Two years ago, when I initially had this thought, I also had the benefit of free time. Sure, I could have easily mustered up something valuable to provide online. But now, I've lost the benefit of free time and that idea of a digital product continues to linger inside my head. I'll get to it in my FY3 year ...or maybe I'm stuck in analysis paralysis.
Quote of the week:
All growth requires loss. A loss of your old values, your own behaviours, your old loves, your old identity. Therefore, growth sometimes has a component of grief to it. — Mark Manson
Recommendation of the week:
Video 📺 - Get Rich in the New Economy
Here's a very interesting video, which I agree with, about why in this new economy, things that used to make you wealthy bear little leverage. In a content-driven world, attention and community are the new commodities.
As always be safe, be happy.
Warm regards - Yath 🤟🏾