I remember a few years ago, I brought a problem to my coach Steve Chandler. The problem was that I didn’t know what next step to take in my business. I had a few different options, but I seemed to be unable to decide which one to action.
Up until this point, my process for making a decision had just been to get quiet and to trust my gut. This had worked well so far, and I’d typically get a feeling for what to do next. Perhaps my gut was faulty because I had been struggling with this for a few weeks, and I wasn’t getting a clear signal. I was now at the stage where waiting any longer would have been detrimental to my business.
I brought this to my coach, Steve Chandler, who told me to write down all the different options on a piece of paper and put it in front of a dartboard and throw a dart at it. Whichever option the dot landed closest to, I’d go ahead with that.
Using his trademark humour, Steve Chandler made his point. It didn’t really matter what I chose, but not moving forward was also a decision. If I simply took an action, whichever one it was, it would either reveal itself to be the right one or the wrong one. Either way, I would keep moving forward.
I recently watched a documentary on Netflix called Stutz, where he talks about a concept aligned with this. He calls it the string of pearls. Each pearl along the string is just simply the next action you take. Therefore it’s not about taking the correct action or getting things right but simply taking an action and moving forward.
So when my clients struggle to decide what to do, I advise them first to get quiet and listen to their gut, listen to their inner wisdom and see if something comes up when they slow their mind down – and if they’re struggling with that, then simply make a decision – any decision – and then take it from there.
In this whole process, I created something called my Document, which was the most important foundational work I did when I hired Steve Hardison, The Ultimate Coach. This Document is the byproduct of uncovering pages and pages of negative beliefs I had about myself, then going through a process of forgiving myself and creating a set of statements that were more true and empowering for me.
One of the things Steve asked me to do to take this process deeper was to ask the people closest to me to record themselves speaking my Document. It meant a lot to me when my dad said yes to recording himself, which is why I got our video editor to make a video with it. Please check it out below and watch this open to seeing the value of it for YOU:
With love and appreciation,
Ankush Jain
Coach and Author of Sweet Sharing – Rediscovering the REAL You
