Connect the Dots
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
Hindsight is always 20/20, but the future is uncertain and possibly frightening.
Are those problems or possibilities? Opportunities or pitfalls? Security or scarcity?
The way you view these decision-making opportunities depends on your goal. What are you trying to achieve?
Until we have a clearly defined point that we are working towards, each decision we make seems isolated and unrelated to the next. This could not be further from the truth.
Each decision you make creates a new set of choices. Some are the same as before, while some are gone forever.
So how do you pick? Each door you go through closes another.
What if I make the wrong choice?
Do not let paralysis by analysis keep you in the status quo forever. Make a decision. If it was the wrong one, use the new options on the table to get you back on track to your long-term goal.
We must see life as a series of inner connected dots and not independent decisions whose consequences do not affect future choices.
Life puts many options in our path. The question is how will you respond and piece them together to help you meet your final goal?
Only connecting a few dots will make a nice, small picture, but what if there is a larger design in store for you? Did you stop at the seventh dot when there are seventy to connect in your life?
Maybe we have a long-range goal to carry out. To get there, we need many short-range dots to connect to give us the option of getting to our ultimate goal.
Dots only appear connected when you look backwards. The trick is learning how to forecast. Just like a chess player always things a few moves ahead, the same should be true of our decision-making. How will my move today set me up for future moves? Are they in line with my long-term goals?
QUESTION:
What is your next dot?