sometimes the right choice is simply making a choice

​Many years ago, when I was just dipping my toes into my running journey, I had several friends in an online running group who were registering for a local race. I'd go online and read their posts about their preparations; I could feel their energy as they looked ahead to the event.

Meanwhile, I just kept THINKING ABOUT registering. Every day I'd go for my run. Every day I'd come home from that run and go to the Richmond Marathon website. I'd scroll to the half marathon registration button. And every day I'd leave that website continuing to think about it....

Then one day I decided that surely there'd be less anxiety just going ahead and registering for the event than spending the next several months thinking about it.

I was right. Once I registered for the race - once I committed my energies to running and not to wrestling with the idea of running - life no longer felt like it was sitting in neutral.

Running as much as anything else has taught me about the perils of fence-sitting. Running as much as anything else has taught me the energy and power that can be found in just making the choice: No or Go.

Sometimes decisions are hard. While we're sitting on the fence thinking about them, we can start convincing ourselves wrestling with a decision is better than making one.

No and Go both sound bad, so we choose neutral; committing to either one sounds terrifying, so we commit to nothing at all.

Fence-sitting can become habit forming. We can find ourselves perpetually wrestling with No or Go in our relationships, in our jobs, our vacation plans, our dreams and visions - we can make a lifetime out of 'all in' or 'all out'.

Then one day we wake up to the truth that while we've decided nothing, we've gone nowhere.

Sometimes that's what making the decision is all about - moving. Fence sitting is neutral and directionless. But by choosing No or Go - either one gets you moving again.

We can spend our whole lives wrestling with which one is the best choice when at some point simply making a choice became the best one. Because while you're on the fence, that's where your energies are. That's where life is. On the fence.

When you choose No or Go, either way life starts moving again. And more and more, I'm discovering a moving life is underappreciated. It's often sacrificed to have more time to come up with the right choice.

A choice some folks never make while they sit motionless on a fence.

It's Monday. Is there a No or Go choice you can make this week? Maybe it's not about which one is the right one. Maybe it's simply about getting your life moving again.