I look back on my life and realize that there are times when I should’ve thought more before I leapt. Most recently I took a job which precipitated a series of events that were really a pain in the ass.
I used to employ this tactic of going to the woods alone and camping out for a night and writing out the pros and cons of the situation. That was my way of getting quiet and clear– a meditation of sorts.
This time however, I felt rushed and out of time.
So I took this job doing specialty marketing for a real estate developer and since I didn’t have a lot of “time,” but the promise of a lot of money in commissions, I made quick decisions and moved a lot of things around in my life without thinking them through. The job was a full time stress monster and I was getting paid a lot of money, which somehow allows you to justify and accept undue stress.
In addition to the new job, during this time I met the woman who is now my wife and fell in love. We moved in together right away, but since we both had very small apartments, we were looking for a new place together. The job had me in a rush with everything because I let my concept of time get skewed. I pushed things that should’ve taken the time to set themselves.
Anyway, one thing led to another and we moved into this big loft downtown (<–see pic of awesome loft on left). We told ourselves, somehow magically, the extra space would be justified because we’d be teaching yoga out of there on our off time. Short story longer, the market changed, my real estate developer friend who I was working for had to change his tactics and my job slowly went away. None of the dream commissions that I had counted before they hatched came through.
Patience Pays.
The illusion of not enough time is so prevalent right now. The most important thing you can do is to slow down— especially before making big decisions. Why? Because when you slow down and relax you can hear yourself think. What that actually means is that when you get quiet you can hear your gut talking– which is actually your intuition and it’s your intuition that gets you to the right places. When things are going at breakneck speed the intuition almost always gets lost and you suffer.
Don’t let anyone or anything pressure you into making a big decision before you are comfortable. You might still have some fears and apprehensions, but if you look deeply into your gut before you make the decision you’ll get a feeling when it’s okay to jump. Then jump. You might get the opposite feeling: No Way! Don’t jump. Either way, you won’t be able to do that properly if you’re under pressure and think you’ve got to make a crack decision because of lack of time.
Sometimes you have to make an instant decision, but that’s usually on smaller issues– On the big stuff, the major life moves, you should relaxxxxx and oftentimes you’ll realize you’ve got some time.
critical decisions photo courtesy of dddgirl79 via flickr.com
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