I have pondered for a couple of seconds, starring directly at my PC screen just doing nothing but thinking how to perfectly introduce this article to you all. Well I couldn't think of any perfect speech to kick off with nor quote. So let me quickly ask us this question: have any of you had this moment of regret regarding what you should have done that you ended up not doing and it later turned out that if you had taken action before, you would have had some EUREKA MOMENT. Now this particular feeling hurt's real bad and makes you feel absolutely terrible; ya I know about it, because I myself have been in such position a couple of times . Now this brings me to what I wanna write to us about today "the cost of doing nothing" I wish you all could have seen my face as I just typed that! As we all know, we are surrounded by choices and decisions everyday and each of these comes with a cost. However sometimes we are at the unfair side of time that basically waits for no one and our mind which is in constant evaluation of whatever we chose to do. These two factors happen to be with us and against depending on the given circumstances we find ourselves at that given moment. Now that we have introduced some factors and explained certain terms, lets get a little bit more direct. My question is why do we sometimes opt to do nothing; particularly in situations that we could have actually done something. Here are some reasons I think we do:
I. PHOBIA OF FAILING:
We all have been there at some point. Certain situations result to this outcome. It is an irrational response to a specific situation, known as "atychiphobia" in the medical world, sometimes these involutory actions might be related to anxiety or depression caused by past experiences or genetics. It could as well be related to being a perfectionist; having such high expectations for how things should turn out often leads to a drop in moral.
II. LACK OF SELF-CONFIDENCE:
According researchers Morris Rosenberg and Timothy J. Owens , the authors of Low Self Esteem People: "people with low self esteem tend to be hypersensitive. They have a fragile sense that can be easily wounded by others". And these can easily influence thoughts and decision making. Listening to our inner critic at all times, confirming to peoples opinion, losing focus of the main goal and task at hand, etc. These and many more can seriously affect the way we take action.
III. WE EASILY GET DISTRACTED:
This point might actually sound unserious. But, the reality is that most of us can't really focus on a particular thing for long. Our minds are filled up with various thoughts that can easily cloud our decision making habit. Funny enough it could be a story that we overheard replaying itself to us just to stop us from making a certain move. Our mind at all times wants to stay in a safe mode.
These and many more reasons, affect us from not making certain life changing decision/moves we ought to have made. The next question right now is: are there things we can actually do to remedy this situation and stop missing out from opportunities and moments meant for us? Well, the answer goes this way; yes there are things we can do to help ourselves become better at taking opportunities when they present themselves. Taking a closer look into them, we have activities like:
. Talking to a professional if you feel it is medically related is advisable.
. Talking to a professional if you are perfectionist would help put your perspectives and expectations in check.
. Try to engage in activities that force you to try out new things often like listening to educative enlightening conversations or presentations, being around people with an inspiring attitude, asking questions to people who know better, making personal researches etc. These would help keep the mind In state readiness at all times.
. Playing games are as well a good way to change the way our mind thinks and reacts. Find any game you enjoy and try to have fun while playing it. Try to break new records often and by so doing you are actually redirecting your brain activities into a more creative state.
. Avoid self-loathing and embrace self love; Avoid any thing that would cause you to hate yourself for any reason what's so ever, blame yourself less for past actions that happened and try to make amends in honesty. Love yourself more by eating right, working out, sleeping well and engaging in every other essential healthy lifestyle activity.
Regret usually brings along guilt, pain, self blame etc. Just like I mentioned earlier, sometimes we are at the unfair side of time and this can affect us if we fail to take a required action when we are supposed to. So therefore I'll urge us to do our best to stay in charge of our mind at all times, prepared; incase any opportunities presents itself. The cost of doing nothing is never a great feeling, however I hope we get to manage our position well in every situation we find ourselves in.
