While it’s always advisable to take the time to weigh up a situation before making a decision, too much thinking can be a trap. It’s altogether possible to overthink, over-analyse and fall into error. Reasonable can be turned into unreasonable if we start to doubt ourselves.
There are those who live their lives in a permanent state of uncertainty. Instinct and common sense pull them in one direction while fear and doubt pull them in another. Uncertainty leads to doubt, doubt results in fear and fear contributes to depression.
Deliberately delayed reactions can result in disappointment. We can miss potentially valuable occasions, situations and even relationships because we put too much time into thought and not enough time into action.
There’s an element of risk in every decision we make. Absolute certainty may be desirable but it’s rarely attainable. There a times when the only way to move forwards is to step into the unknown, trusting in the decision we have made. That takes a combination of courage and faith. And it’s that same combination that enables us to cope with the outcome, to own the consequences of our own decisions and opinions.
More importantly it’s that combination of courage and faith that gives us the ability to regroup, reconsider and relaunch if the outcome of our actions is less than what we consider to be desirable.
Life is a mix of victories and defeats, good and bad, sunshine and rain. Survival starts with self-knowledge.
It’s vital that we put effort into understanding ourselves; to get to know ourselves; and to get to love ourselves. The process involves change but we have the resources to change ourselves. No-one else can do it for us. No-one else can decide when the time is right.
A crisis can result in rapid change. More usually, however, it’s a gradual process. The best time to start is now.
Gary Bentley Counselling 