Once upon a time, a donkey stood an equal distance between a pile of hay and a bucket of water.
The donkey couldn’t make up its mind. Should I eat first and then drink? Or should I drink first and then eat?
Water or hay?
Water or hay?
Water or hay?
The donkey never made a choice. It didn’t drink any water. It didn’t eat any hay.
The donkey died.
The donkey died of starvation and thirst.
The choice of what came first wasn’t important.
What was important was choosing.
The Donkey Story was written by French philosopher Jean Buridan, in the fourteenth century. Yet sometimes I feel like the donkey is in my backyard now, in this century.
Do you have trouble making up your mind like the donkey
Do you ever feel like the donkey? But instead of a pile of hay and a bucket of water, you have two different projects on your desk?
What should you do first? And since you can’t decide what to do first. You don’t do either one.
I have on my desk, several projects, and I can’t decide which one to do first. I am the donkey sitting between a bucket of water and a pile of hay.
Because I can’t make up my mind, I don’t do either.
My new plan is to just choose one project. Finish it. And then do the next project.
One at a time.
I don’t want to die with a pile of unfinished projects or a pile of rotted figs at my feet.
“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.”
―
Develop a bias to action
A bias for action favors taking action over inaction and acting when you might not have all of the information or know the outcome.
By taking action you can learn as you work on the project.
“There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.”
―
There is no outcome if you don’t do the work.
You can not edit a story you never wrote.
You can not refine a song you never sang.
You can not retouch a painting you never painted.
You can not critique a cake you never baked.
You can not tailor a dress you have never sewed.
The Donkey did not have a bias to action. Poor donkey.
Do you ever feel like the donkey in Buridan’s fable?
Please let me know. I would love to chat.
xo
Pamela
p.s. I decided to not be a donkey and made a choice today. One project at a time.
