Flip A Coin
My calendar tells me that now is the time allotted to write the next edition of Coach Talk. Yet, I have so much on my plate. My website has been down all week, I'm planning for my next F.R.E.E. Teleclass and I'm leaving town on Friday for six days to attend a workshop. Do I catch up on other things or do I listen to what my calendar tells me to do? As you have probably guessed by now, I've decided to trust my calendar and my intuition to sit down to write this newsletter. So far, it's been effortless. And since that's been my theme for the last few months and hopefully for the rest of my life, it seems like I've made the right decision. So in the spirit of effortless, I am taking an email I got today from an awesome client of mine and turning it into one of the topics for this newsletter. It feels good going with the flow of what's in front of me rather than fight and resist what is.Flip A Coin
"I need to flip more coins." That's what the email from my client read. What it was really saying is that we lose so much time, energy and often money in the process of making a decision. When in fact, flipping a coin could do the job faster, more efficiently and sometimes even better. It actually reminded me of a news story from my high school days, where a monkey (literally a monkey) picked a portfolio of stocks better than two stock brokers. I am sure the monkey spent less time and effort researching those picks than the brokers did.
Am I really advocating a coin toss for major decisions in your life? Yes, I am. Am I crazy? Perhaps not, but I am out of my mind.
We have the notion that we need to do a lot of research, think about things, ask people for advice, create a pros and cons spreadsheet, etc. before making a decision. Yet it's our intuition that allows us to make the same decision much better and spontaneously. And it doesn't require you to be in your mind.
How does this relate to flipping a coin? If you're not in touch with your intuition and you've been stuck for a while, then flipping a coin will certainly get you into action and unstuck much faster. Even if the decision you make is not exactly optimal, there is usually an opportunity to course correct at some point in the future (even if you think there isn't). So getting unstuck is often advantageous even if our movement is in the seemingly 'wrong' direction.
Coach Talk Exercise
I invite you to "get unstuck and get going" by making decisions. Here's what you do:
- Make a list of all unmade decisions weighing you down. Include small and big, important and seemingly minor decisions.
- Make as many of these decisions as you can. Have a coin handy just in case. Notice how much lighter you feel.
P.S. I know I must be offending some of our stock-broker subscribers. I am not suggesting that a monkey can do their job better. I am saying that intuitive knowing is often more powerful than researched intellectual decision.
Quotes
"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
-- Mark Twain
"The opportunity to experience yourself differently is always available"
-- Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
