Crossroads

[00:00:00] You're listening to the Daily five, an experimental podcast by Aurooba, where I talk about something for five minutes. So let's get to it, shall we? Every few years I find myself at some kind of crossroad where usually there are two, maybe three, very rarely, four main paths open. And I have to decide which one to take.

[00:00:31] It's a crossroad because there's no one clear decision. The easiest path to go down is not always the right one, but the harder path to go down is also not necessarily the right one. I've been busy today – first with work stuff and then doing things with my spouse because it is his birthday week. And of course, I do crazy things like celebrate the whole week.

[00:00:55] And in the back of my mind, I've been reflecting on the last few, last couple crossroads I've found myself at, trying to figure out how I made those decisions so that I can deal with this crossroad I'm finding myself at right now. Here's the thing about crossroads, they almost never blindside you. It's usually more like you kick the can down the road, and now you can either kick it down even further or you make a decision.

[00:01:26] At some point though, you come head to head with the issue and you're almost forced to make a decision? I'm not sure I'm in a place where I have to make a decision, but I'm acutely aware that it's coming and it's been weighing on me a bit more today than usual.

[00:01:49] So the last two major crossroads of my life. The very last crossroad I was at was when I had to decide whether to keep going with my business partner or let go. In that situation, I gave it a time limit. I gave myself six more months to see if the relationship would work based on a couple key criterion, and if not, then I'd get out. I ended up getting out.

[00:02:11] In that situation, the path I took was the much harder, but in the end, it was absolutely the right decision and it paid off for me in a very, very big way.

The crossroad before that was when I found myself with two very compelling proposals, one from the man I was dating and one from a man who I found...deeply captivating. It was a decision filled with pressure and it was incredibly time sensitive.

[00:02:45] It, it was not so much a difficult decision, but more a decision about what was more important to me in a marriage and a lifelong partner. And in that situation, I married the man I was dating, and it too was absolutely the right decision. And every day since then has confirmed that. At least so far.

[00:03:08] There have been smaller crossroads and pivots in between there, but those were the two very, very big ones. One in my professional life and one in my personal. In one crossroad, I chose the harder path with the most resistance. In another, I chose the path with the least resistance. Both were, in hindsight, the right decisions.

[00:03:28] But what was common in those two decisions? In both those decisions? I chose to go all in on a path after a period of consideration, because see, decision making is inherently something that comes with an opportunity cost, and I was willing to give something up to get something else without being entirely certain if it was the right outcome.

[00:03:50] So I guess making a decision is not so much about the decision itself, but more about what's important to you and which decision will get you closer to what's important to you? Obviously, we live in the real world and it has these very real realities and we need to weigh those, but maybe they shouldn't carry as much weight as we think? Because they're likely what's keeping us in our current situation rather than helping us get out?

[00:04:19] This is very much an unfinished thought, and maybe it's not even a real thought because I think ultimately many of our decisions are intuitive and the narrative and decision making tree we create is something more of a justification than the reason why we make it. Maybe. I don't know. Yeah. Thanks for listening.

[00:04:47] Talk to you tomorrow.