Do you have trouble making decisions? Join the club. No matter if you’re just a person at home in front of a blank piece of paper, or the President of the United States, we all have trouble now and again making decisions.
Frankly, sometimes there are just too many options to choose from, and we get hung up on attempting to determine which is the exact right choice. Other times, even if we carefully weigh the pluses and minuses of each action, the benefits of each choice come out equal — and, again, can’t decide.
So what do we do? We put it off until another day.
This applies to writing as well. Are you working on a story and can’t decide whether to send your character to the grocery store for milk, or on a vacation to Fiji? Or are you simply crafting an email to your boss about a new opportunity you hope to pursue, and can’t figure out the exact right words to use?
Unfortunately, in this post I can’t advise you on the choices you’re up against in your specific project. However, one thing that’s always helpful to me is to remember that, when you put off your decision, that’s still a choice–an ‘action.’ You have chosen not to write and send your email today, or not continue onward in your story.
What’s helpful about that is to realize that, even by ‘not choosing’ or ‘not deciding,’ you actually are making a decision. You need more time to decide on those exact right words? That’s fine, just know that you are not putting off your decision — you are making a decision.
So if you ever think to yourself, ‘I have a hard time making decisions,’ think again. By not choosing to do something, or putting off a task, you have actually made a very clear decision in that moment.
If you really want to get some words on a page today, then consider looking for inspiration in less-than-obvious places. And, when all else fails, just put words down. Any words. In other words, just write.
What are some of the choices, or decisions, you have made today?