Embracing the Imperative of Imperfect Decisions
In the quiet of our minds, we often believe that perfect decisions are within reach if we just gather enough information. But this pursuit is a mirage. The longer we hesitate, the more life slips away. Clarity doesn't come from perfection—it comes from making a choice and moving forward, imperfect though it may be.
Missed Opportunities
There was a time when I believed that the wisest course of action was to wait—to gather more information, to consider every possible consequence, to construct in my mind the flawless decision, free of regret or error. How sensible, how rational it all seemed. And yet, in this careful deliberation, I found myself immobile, watching as opportunities dissolved into the past, lost not by miscalculation, but by sheer inaction.
The great irony is that certainty is a mirage, a trick of the mind projected upon the shifting sands of reality. One waits for the perfect moment, the definitive proof, the unimpeachable logic of an irrefutable choice—but all the while, life proceeds without pause. Circumstances change, new variables emerge, and the very decision that once seemed so complex is rendered obsolete by the passage of time.
Embracing Uncertainty Leads to Progress
The truth, however unpleasant, is that all decisions are made in ignorance. The world does not offer omniscience as a precondition for action. Instead, it provides only the crude, incomplete data of the present moment—fragments of experience from which we must construct meaning and direction. And so, I have come to understand that action itself is the sole means by which one can pierce the veil of uncertainty. A choice, once made, generates consequences; consequences provide information; and information, in turn, refines the next decision.
It is, in essence, a process of perpetual becoming—one does not make a single grand, correct choice, but rather an endless succession of imperfect, evolving ones. To hesitate indefinitely is to surrender one’s agency to the indifferent mechanisms of chance and external will. A life governed by deliberation alone is a life spent in the waiting room of existence, where nothing is lived, only anticipated.
Choose Forward
And so, I have abandoned the pursuit of perfect choices in favor of simply choosing. Not recklessly, but with the understanding that errors, adjustments, and recalibrations are the natural order of things. Better an imperfect step forward than an eternity of stasis. Better the lessons of experience than the sterile safety of indecision. For in the end, the only truly irreversible choice is the choice never made.
"In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity"
- Sun Tzu's The Art of War
"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."
- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
"The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better."
- On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King