When you’re starting a new business or a new project and you have more than one option to choose from, you might experience a decision paralysis syndrome.
You are not able to make up your mind what to choose. It is mostly because of the fear that your choice might be wrong and end up in a failure. You try to be as close to 100% sure before you make the choice.
Making any choice with 100% surety is never possible.
What you tend to lose is a lot of time while you’re making up your mind to choose one thing.
Sometimes, you might choose two things to do since you’re not sure about one choice in particular.
So, now, in the long run, you’re stuck with two things or projects. Not that it is bad. But, focusing your energy and time on one thing can bring you greater learning and more chances of success.
Also, with two things running in parallel when something disappointing happens in one project, you automatically start inclining towards the other. A disappointment gives rise to a temporary feeling that one is more worthwhile to pursue than the other.
You’ll keep oscillating between the two and at some point, you’ll completely quit both out of stress and frustration. Sacrificing time, money, and self-confidence when you quit something that was not successful.
Here is how you can choose better.
Pick three things – project ideas, business ideas or anything that you want to do long-term.
Describe each of them. The idea, a simple plan to execute, what early success would look like, and time (in months or years) you’d give yourself to reach the initial success point.
Look at the 3 descriptions you have written down. Weigh each of them against your desire, your passion, your likeliness to continue with the project even when things seem grey or dark.
Understand the exit points for each of the three choices.
Choose one and really commit to it until the end (the exit point).
Committing yourself to a single choice for a defined period of time will help you find ways to reach a pre-defined success point.
During the journey, you’ll sometimes feel like quitting. But, since you have no second option, chances are you’ll choose to persist and find ways to be successful.
The more time you put trying to achieve success for a single project or business, the more stubborn you’ll become about that goal.
You have to be stubborn about your goal to be successful, but be flexible about your path to reach there.
Choose one and really commit.