Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Out of Africa

Late last night I shared some proverbs from across the globe in the post, Wisdom from All Corners. Today, I'm going to take each one to use as a springboard of discussion. The first of these hails from Africa.
Indecision is like a stepchild. If he does not wash his hands, he is called dirty. If he does, he is wasting water.
If you asked my wife, she might tell you that, aside from referring to me as Trey or her Sweetie, there's another name that fits me to a tee: King Wishy-Washy! I rarely meet a situation in which I can't vacillate from one side to the other. In fact, I'm known frequently to make the most absolute right decision at the most absolute wrong time.

I'm a very thorough person. I always try to look at the situations we face in life from every conceivable angle. Part of the reason for this, owing to several of my neurological and/or psychological issues, is that I have excessively slow reactions and so, if something happens that I didn't anticipate, I often resemble a deer caught in the headlights!

Of course, looking at life from so many different directions can be a recipe for gridlock. Every time I think I've made a final decision, I think to myself, "But what if..." and then I must reaccess the whole thing again. As I think you can easily see, this sets up a perpetual cycle!

Consequently, in far too many cases, my original "draft" decision was the right one for the given situation, but because of the aforementioned cycle, I don't act when I should. By the time I finally implement the action, the time has passed and what was once a great decision turns into a mediocre or terrible one.

I'm working diligently to modify this aspect of my personality and studying the ancient texts of Taoism has certainly helped. It's a work in progress though.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are unmoderated, so you can write whatever you want.