Sylvia Plath, Fig Trees, Decision Trees and Choosing a Path "WTF Should I do with my life?" You might ask yourself. If you're like me, the problem isn't that you don't know what you want to do, it's that you want to do EVERYTHING. And this puts you in a tough spot. "The man who chases two rabbits, catches neither," is a saying for a reason.
Sylvia Plath wrote what being stuck in analysis paralysis is like so perfectly: “I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.” Holy shit, she got it! I'll sit there staring at all the options and starve to death before picking one. This is terrible! I am finally fed up with this bullshit and taking measures to move past it. It's helping me to remind myself that I don't have to do just ONE thing in my entire life. I can and will do many things. I just have to focus my attention on them one at a time. You've got to make a decision. Then put your wholehearted effort into what you decided to do. You're allowed to keep learning and adjusting along the way. You can experiment and see what works for you and you're even allowed to quit if what you chose isn't what you expected it to be. The main key here is deciding to focus. Don't chase two rabbits. No more starving. Pick something, give it your best shot, and if you like it you can keep going. If you don't, you can pick another thing to try. Just stop being stuck in analysis paralysis. That's a horrible place to be.
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We can solve nearly all the world's problems with better education. The first step is educating ourselves.
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AuthorHey there! I'm Jax. Here on A Journey To Better, it's all about bettering ourselves, our lives, and the lives of others. Join me on a self development quest to learn more and improve every day. Archives
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