Indecision is the Mother of…Well, I Can’t Decide

Of the many lovely traits I’ve passed on to my kids, along with the one ear that sticks out too far and my very large teeth (in a very narrow mouth), the one that I most regret is my great capacity for indecision.

Or maybe it’s my lack of confidence.   I’m not sure…what do you think? (I’m just joking. Mostly. Ok, just a little.)

I can get totally tangled up in indecision on the smallest of things, while charging foolishly headfirst into bigger decisions (or purchases.) I’m not sure if it is fear of change, or the unknown, or in the case of changing my Twitter handle and the name of my blog, fear of making the wrong decision (or just laziness, because I’m not sure if I can track down all the places I’ve registered my Twitter/Pinterest/Periscope/Instagram IDs).

From the slightly big-to-me things (should I submit an article there?) to the small things (fine, sure, the shutter on the camera doesn’t fire in low light and the lens on that one has a deep scratch, but as long as I shoot outside in sunlight – but not direct sunlight, hello scratched lens – but I don’t know what camera I want so lets use this beat up thing another 6 months) I can have a ridiculously difficult time making a decision.

I can become mired in indecision. Paralyzed. Frozen.

And lately, I’ve seen this trait in my kiddos.

“I don’t know if I want to take dance lessons” (moaned three weeks before the recital).

(Bypassing the 85 minute long wait in line with our Fast Pass”) one child moans “I don’t want to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad”, and on OUR return to the station, said waiting child cries “I changed my mind, I DO want to ride.”

“I don’t think I want to go to camp”, followed by “What do you mean, I can’t go because it’s full? But I didn’t know if I wanted to go then!”

The list goes on and on. And the indecision can become as painful as a being stuck on the sofa during a Judge Judy marathon and the remote control battery is dead.

So when a quote from Tina Fey’s biography “Bossypants” came as a cute little notecard in an issue of “O” Magazine (no judging), I had to clip it out and stick it to the bulletin board over my desk. The notecard itself is a unimpressive, so I had to jazz up my own version:

Granted, sometimes you need someone’s big ol’ foot on your ass to give you a shove at the top of the slide, but the analogy is pretty accurate.

Because in this house, we tend over think EVERYTHING. (Except for the stuff that we don’t think about at all, like buying batteries for my scale or dusting baseboards, or whether we really have anything for dinner.)

Over-thinking generally just leads to indecision around here. Which isn’t really aided by a husband who says “I don’t see what the big deal is”, because I can usually give him a pretty detailed list – because I’ve thought about it – and typically, this comment is largely rhetorical.

Sometimes, we all need a push, or someone to yell “snap decision NOW” as I do with the kids when the act of choosing lunchbox contents becomes too much to handle. Sometimes, that first step is the biggest step of all, and momentum will carry you the rest of the way.

Isn’t it?

(No, really – is it?)

So when I start to get overwhelmed, I just think about being that kid at the top of the water slide, and I just jump right in.

Or I hyperventilate, because I don’t like heights.

Welcome to my life.

6. Share a favorite quote that you enjoy and describe what it means to you.

Now go check out more fun and brilliance at this week’s Writer’s Workshop.

Or don’t.