Indecision
When I got to Vegas a few weeks ago, I felt like I should get involved in some service activities now that I was going to be here for a while. I’ve had this nagging feeling for a while to get more involved in service, and I’ve tried to get myself to commit to things before. My last attempt at an ongoing service project was with Micro Business Mentors, which is an organization that helps teach entrepreneurial skills to lower-income groups of people. For some reason, it was hard for me to get fully invested into what I was doing and it kind of fizzled out.
Now, in Vegas, I found a service organization that I was very excited about, Team In Training. I’m training with a group of people to be able to compete in a triathlon in Texas. In conjunction with our training, we raise money that goes to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I’ve been really enjoying the program, but I didn’t want to raise funds using the traditional methods. Like always, I wanted to do my own thing. I wanted to take this opportunity to learn what it takes to put together a non-profit organization. I had the cause, now I just had to figure out a way to make money by using that cause. So, I decided to host a bicycle drive. I put together a website at www.Bikes4Cancer.com and I’ve been trying to get bike donations so that we can fix them up and sell them.
With so much going on with my job and all things that I’ve been doing while trying to get assimilated here, it took me quite some time to get my website up and running. Because of that, I haven’t raised much money at all. I committed to raise $4,200, and I’ve only raised like $150 or something. Well, with the program, they have a time period about half way through that they call, “Re-Commitment”. At that time, when you recommit, you become personally responsible for raising those funds, and if you don’t, you authorize them to charge your credit card.
So, now I’m trying to make the decision of whether or not I should continue with the program. The problem is, I don’t want to. This frustrates me because of the habit of indecision I’ve had lately. I’ve been reading “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. He discusses indecision as one of the faults that keeps people from achieving success. As I look back at my life, I can see how indecision has been a trait that has crippled me. I always say that I’m good at a lot of things, but not great at any of them. That’s because I could never make decisions about what things I wanted to pursue. I have many varying interests, and so my time was always spread among so many things that I never have developed any expertise in one particular area.
For example, growing up, I always wanted to learn both the piano and the guitar. After hearing somebody play the piano, I would get motivated to learn that instrument, so I would be all gun-ho on practicing that one for a while. Then, later I would hear somebody play the guitar and decide that the guitar would be a better instrument for me to play. So, the result of this indecision? I can play a little guitar and a little piano. I’m not good at either, although I know the basics and can learn songs if I really want to.
With Team In Training, it’s not that I don’t want to continue with the program. I really do. I also want to continue to try and raise money through the use of a bicycle drive. However, with the time pressure, I’m just lacking the confidence that I know how best to do so. It’s the time pressure and commitment that are making me want to bow out. Also, I’ve been really stressed with my job lately and so I feel like I lack the energy that is required to make the bicycle drive a success. Getting the bicycles in one challenge, once I get them, I need to tune them up and sell them. I’ve done that before and I know how time consuming it can be so I just don’t know if I have the time necessary.
Anyway, I really think this is a crippling habit of mine and I need to get it figured out. I have lots of great ideas but I jump from one to the next so quickly without giving things a chance. It’s much better to stick with an idea too long than it is to jump from one to the other without giving it adequate time. I’m not sure that’s the best choice with Team In Training, but I do feel it’s the best choice with my current job.
Uncategorized | Aaron Anderson | 
March 19, 2010 5:04 pm
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