You don’t really know yourself until you make a decision and act upon it.
You can think in your head all you want about what you think you want but you don’t really know what you really want until you give yourself a deadline and make a decision. Then you see what really matters to you.
For example, for years I’ve always thought it important to preserve you native language, e.g., in my case Korean. I’ve never thought much about how important it is to learn the English language.
However, when I was in Korea in May visiting with a college friend who was living there with his family, I found myself advising him to make sure his son spoke the English language. His son was born there and was in danger of not learning English if he didn’t make a quick and decisive decision to expose his son to an English language-centered environment.
Suddenly it became very important for a lot of practical and life-altering reasons that his son not lose the opportunity to speak English.
Making a decision around my career has similar elements to it. I spin around in my head about many types of careers- academia, writing, counseling, teaching, going into various sundry businesses- but when I do contemplate making a decision- it all somehow goes back to law. Because of expediency, practicality, lack of better choices, more options, safety, security, money, etc.
So there you have it. It’s one thing to think in your head about options but you don’t really know yourself until you make a decision. And when you start acting upon the decision, you learn even more.
