There's No Perfect Path Forward (And That's Okay)

Let me know if this sounds familiar...

You’re sitting where ever you’re sitting, thinking about how you want to make some changes in your life.

In your head you’re thinking of ideas for things you could do, but with each idea you come up with you just as quickly come up with a reason why it won’t work.

Does this sound familiar?

If so, you might have a case of the “yeah but’s“

What Does It Mean to Have the “Yeah But’s”?

“Yeah but” conversations go something like this…

“I should ask my boss for that promotion!”

“Yeah, but that’s going to be a lot of extra responsibility too.”

“I should go back to school and make a career change!”

“Yeah, but that’s going to cost money and take time.”

“I should do something fun this weekend!”

“Yeah, but who’s gonna do it with me?”

The list goes on.

You’re going to immediately discount every single idea you have towards making a change in your life.

There’s No Perfect Path Forward

Here’s the deal…

Everything is going to have its drawbacks.

There might be a handful of people out there lucky enough to stumble upon the life goals and magical course of action that completely aligns with their existing skills so everything works out perfectly the first time out… but those people are rare. And I’ll bet that if you got a chance to really sit down and talk to them they’d tell you the process wasn’t half as smooth as it looked like from the outside.

No matter what new direction we decide to take with our lives, there’s going to be some hurdles and learning curves. Our willingness to accept these challenges is what will determine our success, and even perhaps our overall happiness in life.

The problem is we don’t get honest with ourselves about this, and instead cycle through and discard every idea we have before we give them a fair shake.

How To Start Making Progress

In order to work through the “yeah but’s” you’re going to have to make decisions regarding where you’re focusing your energy, and even commit to doing some things that are uncomfortable.

You’ll have to invest some time in things that don’t seem clear, and do some work towards uncertain outcomes.

I think this is where a lot of people get fouled up. If we’re going to make an investment in something we want at least some certainty that our efforts will pan out.

While it’s impossible to make a perfect decision, there are ways you can create more clarity for yourself that will hopefully lead you on the best course of action with the tools and information you have available to you at the time.

One way to work through this is to do an exercise commonly called “Possibilities and Options.”

If you were to do this exercise towards making some major life changes, you would start by listing out all the different possibilities and options you potentially have towards this amazing new life you want to create for yourself. Then you go through all of them, listing the pros and cons of each.

From this process, some options ideally percolate up to the top, and some sink lower on the list.

Once a couple of ideas emerge as the best bets as far as you can tell from where you’re sitting right now, then you get started.

So perhaps you’re a musician looking to find a way to make a living off your talent.

Your Possibilities and Options list might include anything and everything from recording an album, busking down by the waterfront, writing commercial jingles, opening an online music school, becoming a high school music teacher, and a hundred other things.

When going through the pros and cons you come to realize that opening an online music school might be the best bet. There’s a lot of question marks and new things you’ll have to teach yourself, but it has the highest earning potential, offers the most long term freedom, and you can get started right away.

You might be intimidated by all the new skills you’ll have to teach yourself about starting an online business, but now that you’ve given it your full consideration you’re realizing that it’s a skill set that could benefit you in a lot of other ways should the original plan not work out.

It’s not going to be easy, but neither will staying where you are now if you’re unhappy with the current course of your life.

What Possibilities and Options Do You Have?

Take some time to write out all the possibilities and options you have for your future life.

What are some of the ideas in your head? What skills do you have that can make money? What are the elements of an ideal life that you need to start bringing to fruition?

Once you’ve got that list, try to pare it down to the top ten, or even top five possibilities and options.

List out the pros and cons for each of those top sets of options. Are there one or two that seem to bubble up to the top? Would the fruition of those ideas represent an improvement from where you are now? Are you willing to do the work to make it happen?

If so, it’s time to get started.