While on a journey through Northern Kruger in December, something happened which changed the way I make decisions on a daily basis - both big and small. I’ll share it with you. Maybe it can work for you too? Who knows.
On a hot and muggy afternoon at Letaba Rest Camp, I heard low rumbles of thunder in the distance. It was around 13:30 and 42°C at the time. Rain would be welcomed with open arms by both wildlife and safari goers at that point. This was going to be a heavy storm and something immediately stirred up inside me. Excitement.
I had heard lions roaring from North of the Letaba river in the morning but had no luck finding them. I knew that if I could find them as the storm hit, it would be special. I immediately left camp and headed in that direction. The bridge over the Letaba river provided a beautiful serenade from White-rumped Swifts as large drops of rain pattered over the savanna. To feel the pressure change along with animal behavior is special. A few kilometers away, the pride of lions were virtually waiting for my arrival. There was no doubt. Females, a large male and plenty of cubs. I sat all alone with them for half an hour and their playfulness grew along with heavy rain. Of all the time spent with lions over the past 7 years, this sighting felt incredibly profound from a personal point of view. This was all the result of acting from a place of excitement. One loud clap of thunder and they disappeared.
In many aspects of life, I had a habit of making decisions and reacting to things in ways which often led to undesirable outcomes. I’d struggle to know if I was acting from a place of excitement or fear/anxiety. In the weeks prior to this, I had certainly been falling for all the tricks in the bag of the latter. So how do I tell the difference now?
With the help of some research, that evening I wrote down a template to help with this. Here are some questions I ask myself in these moments of decision paralysis (with aligned answers in brackets):
Do you feel like you have open choices? (yes)
Do you feel that if you don’t do this it will be okay? (yes)
Do you feel paranoid at all? (no)
Do you feel like there’s a reward involved? (no)
Do you need to rationalise it? (no)
Do you need to justify it? (no)
If the answer to any of these questions are not aligned - slow down, take a step back and ask yourself why.
If the answers are all aligned - do it.
Watch how it all played out here: