Finding Direction

Every day bajillions of people start a new venture. They decide to start a photography business, they decide to open a Subway franchise, they decide to create a Facebook fan page, they decide to start selling bowling balls. Whatever. With each of those decisions and all the choices that were mulled over, how many choices were NOT decided upon? We don’t normally think about the unchosen ventures. Focus typically only falls upon the direction that was chosen.

So, let’s say you have a desk job that bores you, but you love to paint with watercolors, take photographs of nature, and teach people about living green. You want to start a business, go out on your own, and follow your passion. Ok, great! But which passion do you choose? Watercolor, photography, or being a greenie? HOW do you know which one to choose? How do you decide?

I got to thinking about this today after a Twitter conversation on the subject. You could have all the motivation in the world, but if you lack direction, you’re stuck dead in the water. The point of this post it not to announce “the way” to make a decision, because everyone does it differently and I don’t think one-size-fits-all when you comes to decision-making. The point of all of this is that, simply, I’m curious.

I have always been able to, upon realizing that I, in fact, have a decision to make, throw the available options into the back of my brain, walk around with them rolling around in there, and confidently know that within a day or two – sometimes just a matter of hours – one will specifically and certainly pop out.

I’m serious. This is how I do it. I mull and mull and mull indirectly until one of the options comes to the surface.

Is that normal?!

How do you do it? Have you ever experienced a time when you had all the motivation and options in the world but were stuck because you couldn’t make a decision on which option to pursue? Share the details. Which venture did you finally choose? How did you do it?

Outside help…time…random guess? When faced with options, how do you decide what direction to go?

Tagged as: decision-making, entrepreneurship, motivation