The Sorrow of Choosing

Choosing is hard

Last week I walked through the Map-Making Guide with the Starship. The first step (spoiler alert!) is setting an endpoint for the map – the specific, measurable goal you want to reach in the next 3-6 months.

It was this step, the most obvious starting place, that caused the most distress.

” I have these 4 goals and I'm going to work on all of them…”

“I can't pick just one!”

You love your craftybiz.
You love it's potential and all that it can become.

You want to honor all that it can be.

You want to keep it open and available.
You want to take it in every possible direction.

The sorrow of choosing

In choosing one, you are releasing other options.

(Just like in marriage.)

When you choose just one thing to focus on, you  acknowledge your own finiteness.

You recognize all that you want to do that can't be done (all at the same time).

Choosing one place for your focus means letting go of the other options and possibilities (for now).

And often we try to skip over this step, we gloss over the inherent sorrow in all those lost chances.

But it's ok. It's ok to mourn those other things. It's ok to be bummed you can't do it all.

Choosing is hard. There's a sort of loss when you choose one opportunity over another.

There's also a risk. One of the Starshippers put it beautifully when she said, “I don't want to verbalize my goal, because then I have to acknowledge my failure if I don't reach it. It's scary!”

Choosing is necessary

I'm not asking you to choose one thing for all time.
I'm not asking you to choose one thing for the next year.

In the Map-Making Guide, I am asking you to focus on one thing, one beautiful, magical endpoint for your map for the next month (or six).

In focusing like a laser, you are so much more likely to reach that place.
You are so much more likely to think creatively, overcome obstacles and just keep swimming until you get there.

It doesn't mean no other part of your business (or life) will get movement. In fact, you'll see crazy changes all over the place. When you choose one focus and work on it mindfully, everything in the periphery will transform and grow, because everything is everything.

When you choose, you're not choosing ONE success, you're choosing a ripple of successes, but you are focusing all your energy on the center of that ripple.