Do you feel tremendous pressure when facing decisions? You're not alone. For many people, the weight of choice becomes paralysing. Every decision feels like it might lead to catastrophe.
The Snakes and Ladders Problem
Decision-making for anxious people is like living in a giant game of Snakes and Ladders. Striving to land on ladders that will take you higher. Terrified of landing on snakes that will send you sliding backward.
The catastrophe looms: falling back to square one. So you stop moving. Decision-making paralysis takes over.
When you're playing this game, you become overly cautious. You need to be certain the next step leads to a ladder before you'll take it. Until you're sure it won't land you on a snake, you don't act.
You delay. Ruminate. Research. Wait. Hope that with a little more time, your decision will guarantee a path to the ladder.
The result? Less action. Less movement. Less life. For every unit of time, you move less. Action can only happen when there's high certainty. Unfortunately, that certainty rarely arrives.
A Different Architecture
What if we changed how we think about decisions entirely?
Consider this question: Who is the best basketball player in the world? You can probably come up with a name. But now: Who is the best explorer in history?
Suddenly the question becomes difficult. The criteria are unclear. Do we mean who traveled furthest? Who discovered the most remarkable landmarks? Who survived the greatest hardships? The answers are essentially endless.
For explorers, the act of exploring is the success. There's no single destination that determines whether you won or lost. The exploration itself is the point.
The Explorer's Mindset
Imagine an explorer coming to a cliff face or stream they can't cross. They don't scream with frustration. They don't see it as failure. Instead, they pull out their notebooks and pencils, draw the obstacle's location on their map, and note what they've learned.
The obstacle is a landmark, not a threat. It's valuable knowledge, an addition to their understanding of the territory.
Snakes & Ladders Mindset
Obstacles are failures. Wrong turns are catastrophes. Every decision carries the risk of sliding backward.
Explorer Mindset
Obstacles are landmarks. "Wrong" turns add to the map. Every experience contributes to understanding the territory.
Becoming an Explorer
To nourish the explorer mentality in your own life allows you to be more bold. It helps you engage with the necessary uncertainty required to grow a meaningful life. You can live more aligned with what matters to you, without your self-esteem constantly on the line.
Try becoming an explorer today:
- Reframe work as territory to be mapped, not tests to pass or fail
- Approach conversations as journeys into foreign lands
- Ask more questions. Look at familiar things in different ways
- When you hit an obstacle, note what you've learned
Experiment with this "life as explorer" idea. See what happens. Enjoy the surprises.
You can't fail. Because for an explorer, there's no such thing.