Just Do It
You know, when you’re in a dilemma and you go like “Should I do this, erm..maybe not….but then, if I do this, I can get this…arggghh!!” ,or even taking a very long time to make a decision. Perhaps it’s family problem, or a girl problem, or even deciding on whether to bet all in during a poker game. Whatever the dilemma is, the one and only one reason why we are hesitant is because we’re all afraid to lose. We’re all afraid to make the wrong choice, which we might regret later. Risk taking has never been easier, especially when everything you desire and own is at stake.
If it were you, will you take that risk?
Maybe we’re all hesitant because we are pushed away from our comfort zone. And perhaps taking time to contemplate is an effort to get back into that particular zone, at least close enough to feel alright. It’s definitely not an RPG computer game where you can make a fatal move and restart the level again. In life, there’s no restart button (not that you can find one), there’s definitely no Ctrl + Z to undo mistakes, and definitely you don’t have “life 2” (not unless you’re Neo in Matrix). The point is, you only get one chance at life, and that makes it so precious that we don’t want to make the wrong step and kiss this life good bye.
But here we are back at square one, the dilemma. We’re back in the cell where 2 hard decisions tear our perfectly sane mind apart. Not to forget the stress that adds to your insanity that might make the person next to you go “Is he alright?” So what’s the strategy? Truth is, there’s no fast rule to strategy. But it is as simple as this: Take your best bet. Just take your best bet. At least, it is a bet worth taking.
The truth is, you never loose. It is either a yes or a no. It is either a positive or a negative. Easy to say...no doubt. But think, what is the worst that could happen to you? You just loose what you bet, that’s it. If you’re deciding on whether to ask a girl out, don’t think too much (but remember to say the right words), just adopt Nike’s slogan, it ticks “Just Do It”. What’s the worst that can happen to you? You get rejected. So what? Find a better girl! But what happens to you if you succeed? You get your hot date. Was it worth it? It is, either way, it is always worth it.
Maybe this is a tiny issue to talk about as compared to issues like world peace issues. Alright, it’s not a bad point to bring up anyway. So let’s talk about taking risks in business. Will you be willing to take a big risk like implementing a new system or perhaps cutting a deal with a multinational company? Surely there will be mass amount of risk involved, like loss profit, or sacrificed bonuses, or even your company’s name at stake. So what’s the next step when you’re faced with the column that has an empty box with your designation below it? Adopt Nike, “Just Do It”.
Well, who can totally agree with such optimism? No one actually, not many people can adopt such optimism when faced with such a stress escalating task. But haven’t you noticed that we have been so critical in our normal days that we fail to live out some optimism in ourselves? Haven’t you noticed that city folks like us are so critical that we made ourselves so shortsighted? And that looking at the opposite side of the coin seems so impossible?
The truth is, we have been so critical that the judgments that we make are all calculated risk, and that all that is left to do is just make a choice, which all ends with “Just Do It”. Just call your play. The same goes to any basketball match. Every match is a risk; every match is a gamble on its own. Sponsors invest so much money in all the players, the coach has a team to bark at, and the players have only 3 minutes to make themselves count. Everybody, from the sponsors to the players to the spectators, everybody is gambling. Well, guess who has the most pressure in a game like this? Pretty simple, isn’t it? The players.
In a game like this, there’s no right or wrong. There’s no bad call or bad shot. Like we say, it’s a gamble. If a player sees a space, he takes a drive. If he sees a player free, he makes the pass. If he has the chance to score, he will take a shot. And it is better for him to take the shot and miss, than not to take that shot at all, because each chances not taken reduces the chance for the team to win.
The same principle applies to life, if you have a risk to take, just take it. This is because you will regret more when you blow your chance than you will when you take your chance. But of course, don’t be reckless. Understand the game behind the issue; understand how much you will loose before calling your play. We are after all point guards in our life. We call the plays that benefit us the most at that particular point of time. And after you call that shot, be happy that you made that choice, because life is all about not regretting the things you did, but the things that you did not get to do. And even if you loose everything, it doesn’t mean that you just ended your life. It just marks the beginning.
Every time a child falls, he learns why he fell. Every time an accident happened, we learn how to avoid. Every time you fall, you’ll understand why your call wasn’t sound. It doesn’t mean that your call was a “Bad” one; it was just not one of your better ones. Most importantly, you understand what went wrong. If you learnt that you lost a game because you haven’t been working hard on your dribbling and shooting, you get back on the court and work on them. Many players run themselves down because they blame their lousy playing. But that shouldn’t be the way. Instead, you should pick yourselves up, work on your mistakes and at the same time, shine your thumb card. And when you get to play the same game again in the near future, you know that this time, the game won’t beat you. Instead, you beat the game. This is simply because success is not determined by how high you bounce, but how high you bounce after a fall.
So don’t be afraid to fall. If you ever do, let yourself fall completely. This is because it is always easier to fall completely and pick you up from there, than to put in extra effort to resist the fall. At the same time, falling completely allows you to view the bigger picture or the problem. Just as long as you see the solution, you’re safe. It’s because when you see it, you will get there one day, even though it will take you years, but you will get there one day. And falling isn’t so bad after all. And it can never be worst as long as you are optimistic, because an optimist will always see opportunity in all calamities, while a pessimist sees calamity in all opportunities.
So, are you willing to take your chances?
Remember Nike: “Just Do It”
