It’s amazing how reading impacts your outlook on life. I’ve written more about the benefits of reading, but today reminded me of this fact. Something I read on the train this morning really resonated with me, and I noticed straight away when I did something wrong. I need to stop postponing making decisions.
The Decision
Without going in to too much detail, I have to make a decision. Right now, I’m not in the prettiest financial position. I’m also facing a large-ish financial decision. I’ve got three options. One, buy a new bed that is on sale until this weekend, which is about 40% off. Two, go on a 3 week trip to Europe in about three months. Three, pay off some debt.
I just had this text chain with my girlfriend:
- GF: Have you thought more about Europe? Do you wanna do a budget?
- Me: It’ll be clearer tomorrow when I get paid.
- GF: Haha how? You know how much you’re getting paid
- Me: Hmm… True… Just putting it off 😛
And that’s exactly what I was doing. I was putting it off. Tomorrow I’m getting paid, but that won’t really have any bearing on the decision because I already know exactly how much is meant to be going in. I’m just working a standard 9-to-5 corporate job and get paid the exact same amount every fortnight.
The Compound Effect
I’m currently re-reading The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. I read it about 12-15 months ago, but I’m reading it again this week in preparation for my What You Will Learn podcast this weekend. Chapter 2 is called ‘Choices’. Here’s an excerpt from the first paragraph:
“Everything in your life exists because you first made a choice about something. Choices are at the root of every one of your results. Choose poorly, and you just might find yourself back at the drawing board, forced to make new, often harder choices. Don’t choose at all, and you’ve made the choice to be a passive receiver of whatever comes your way (emphasis mine)”.
I’ll repeat that for even more emphasis. “Don’t choose at all, and you’ve made the choice to be a passive receiver of whatever comes your way”.
We need to make choices and decisions. Sometimes we’ll be forced to make tough choices. That’s all part of life. We can’t have everything; we need to choose. Importantly, we also need to try and extrapolate out the actions of our choices. The Compound Effect talks a lot about the impact in small choices made every single day that become behaviours and then habits.
Worse than making a poor decision is making no decision at all. Then we’re just a “passive receiver” of all the decision that other people are making on our behalf.
I need to make a decision.
There are pros and cons to all three.
A bed is something that will improve the quality of my sleep for the next 10 years. But at the same time, even after this sale ends, the bed will still be there, just at a higher price.
A holiday to Europe would be amazing! But that money is then gone, and I went to Europe two years ago and the US last year.
Paying off debt would improve my financial situation, both immediately and in the long term. But it’s not the same as a trip to Europe!
