3-2-1 Thursday: On Getting What We Deserve, The Power of Flexibility, and How Good Decisions Are Made

Whether a decision is good or bad can change based on how you act after the choice is made.

You can’t learn all the lessons beforehand. You learn a lot about what you want in a marriage after getting married. You discover what type of career you enjoy after doing a lot of work. […] In many cases, what you wish you knew ahead of time can only be learned after the decision is made.

So there is nothing left but to pay attention to what you like, continue to iterate, and commit to making the most of each opportunity. There is no perfect decision. Good decisions are made right after the fact.

If you make lists of lofty goals, it can be easy to leave them to accumulate, as happens sometimes, into a mountain of to-do’s and notes and half-forgotten plans. Dreaming alone is seductive, even a little sweet, since it lacks the pain of trying. So it feels proper to prize attempts more than dreams. You should have ideals, but you cannot only love an idealized future, you must cultivate a love of effort, too. If you really want something, then the soul must make demands of the body.

It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?