Are you paying attention to your life? The difference between sliding v. deciding is usually awareness. Sliding is like being on a conveyor belt. You drift into the next phase of a relationship or job because it was the easiest thing to do. With deciding, you make a conscious choice. You ‘call the game’; you accurately perceive the situation and can explain plainly what is happening. You acknowledge the transition point, weigh the pros and cons, and have a personal moment of truth before moving onward.
Every decision involves trade-off; every situation, no matter the benefits, also comes with constraints. Pick up one end of the stick, pick up the other as well. Sliding has you drifting into higher levels of lock-in without an explicit commitment. It’s avoiding hard conversations, it’s gradual escalation, convenience-driven with momentum and social entanglements standing in for conscious choice. You end up staying in a situation not because you chose it, but because it’s costly to exit.
Sliding is often conflict avoidance, just a slow-motion way of settling. Deciding is frequently scarier in the moment, requiring effort and courage, however it’s far, far better than a mid-life crisis driven by living a life you didn’t actually pick, a life far less than your potential. Sliding is decision by indecision, surrendering control to chance and circumstance, choosing inertia over free will. Sunk costs and friction (the path of least resistance) determine your life’s direction. Life just happens to you, you end up wherever the auto pilot and cultural norms and expectations take you.
How to take control and cease being a passenger in your own life? Create a plan for your life, journal, develop your self-awareness, hone your EQ, continuously ask “Am I doing this because I want to, because it is in alignment with my goals… or because it’s easier than saying no?”
Closing Quotes:
“We need to decide before we slide.” – Scott M. Stanley
“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.” – Tony Robbins
“Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” – John C. Maxwell
“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen R. Covey
As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier
Note: Every effort has been made to properly source any 3rd person material. I am, however, a voracious reader. If anyone finds any unattributed material, pls let me know asap and I will be delighted to give credit where credit is due.
“All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832
