Pebbles to Stones…Why We Let Little Decisions Turn Into Big Problems
Do you ever have one of those days (or weeks) when it feels like everything is going wrong, everything you touch falls apart, everything you try to do gets sabotaged somehow…everything you do is just wrong? Me too! And sometimes we do make the wrong decisions, say the wrong thing, think the wrong thought. But more than likely that is not the case or the cause for our terrible day. There is usually one decision I have been avoiding or putting off that starts as a little pebble in my shoe, making it uncomfortable to walk around, and eventually it turns into a boulder I am carrying on my back. One decision, one choice, one action step I need to make that, for whatever reason, I am dodging and as that one little pebble grows it becomes harder and harder to do anything else well.
The German Philosopher Eckhart Tolle tells us, “There are no problems, only decisions to make or not make”. So why the struggle with some decisions and not with others? I have no problem deciding what to eat, or wear, or whether to go on vacation or not. It’s simple really, some decisions make us feel “icky” and therefore we avoid them. Maybe they bring up an uncomfortable emotion, reveal some fault of ours, or lead us down a path we don’t really want to go, like agreeing to something we’d rather not do. Whatever the negative feeling is, we will do just about anything to avoid it.
We only have two options here, we can flow through life with grace and ease, trusting our gut, being confident in our decision making, accepting of the fact that sometimes we will get it wrong, let people down, or even have regrets. Or we can claw our way through life, always avoiding and dodging the hard stuff all they while creating even more hard stuff in our wake. I choose grace and ease and I believe you do too! So how do we get there and stay there?
We generally operate from one of two emotions; love or fear. Decisions approached from love come easily and with enthusiasm. But decisions approached from fear, well these tend to stop us in our tracks. We must shift our thought pattern away from this fear and self-doubt and lean into our own intuition and strength and let go of the concern of letting others down by honoring our own needs. Love for ourselves is the key to overcoming fear and doubt. So put that boulder down, trust your gut and make that decision, that choice, that action step that you have perhaps been avoiding and watch all the other pebbles in your shoes disappear.
Written by Sherri Krug-Summers