Confusion

Sometimes it seems as if there are just too many decisions to make.  All of the moving pieces, conflicting priorities, and potential alternatives leave us in a state of confusion.  What are you to do when the confusion seems too much?

One thing you should do — in my opinion — is ask for help.  However, prior to asking for help, its wise to take a few steps to sort out the confusion.  I find the following four step process to be particularly valuable:

• Start by identifying your end state / where you want to go.  As the old expression goes, if you don’t know where you are going an y road will get you there.  Once you anchor on an endpoint, you can move on to the next step….
• Identify what you MUST do to get to that end state.  Breaking down the elephant in to a number of digestible pieces turns an overwhelming situation in to a number of attainable actions.
• Lay out a timeline for the actions.  It doesn’t need to be perfect — in fact it shouldn’t!  The actual course of actions will change, but you need the basic plan to…
• JUST DO IT!  There’s no magic to getting things done.  Just a lot of discipline and hard work.  If you identified where you want to go, broke the path in to a number of intermediate steps, and sequenced the steps, the only thing left to do is start taking the steps.  Too often folks fall in to the “paralysis by analysis” trap and postpone embracing Nike’s incredibly powerful motto.

I’m not suggesting for a moment that escaping one’s state of confusion is easy.  What I am suggesting is that continuing to boo-hoo and belly ache about your situation will get you no where.  Making and executing a plan, is going to get you a different place — maybe better, maybe worse.  In either case, you’ll have learned, grown, and lived a bit more.

With that in mind.

Isn’t it time you took a step forward to avoid the confusion you’re facing?

As always, thanks for the time.