Hesitation versus Deliberation
Maybe I shouldn’t say this as all designers and writers should do their best to present themselves as bastions of solidity and creativity, but it’s not always the case. Let me pause from the prosaic and speak more plainly in the prose; sometimes, we all either hesitate or deliberate. There have been times in my life [1. Both personal and professional, but they have blurred together so as to be nearly indistinguishable these days.] when I’ve delayed without good cause and that’s never a good thing. Whether it was a zombie leaping through a window during a game [2.Resident Evil got me this way more than once.] to rip out my throat and eat my brains or when I paused before buying a pretty girl a drink [3.In my younger days. Though I’m not quite so social, ironically, I’m altogether not bashful.] and some other rake swept in and ruined my evening. What do we get out of this? Hesitation is bad.
Deliberation on the other hand is either viewed as rationalized hesitation by some or, more accurately, as giving careful consideration to various permutations and logic branches before reaching a final, definitive conclusion. Given a reasonable amount of time, a person should be able to draw together a good attack plan and the time sink of thoughtful, due diligence is far outweighed by the reduced probability of error and disappointment. Life, however, rarely affords us the opportunity to take all the time we really need to make a full, proper decision or, when it does, we either prioritize other things ahead of said decision, rarely use the time to give the topic proper consideration, or just make a snap decision or any combination thereof.
You have to trust your gut eventually. When you do, it’ll sometimes lead you to great things and sometimes into quagmires. If your gut isn’t sure, it’ll want you to ponder things a bit more. Don’t look at it as weird and don’t let it interrupt your normal life. Just make sure the decisions you need to make don’t slip all the way off the radar or you may well wind up paralyzed in inaction, much as Hamlet. You don’t want that, now do you?
Learn the rhythm of your words and how many of them you can bear to be echoed back at you each day. Trust your judgment. Free your mind. Everything will fall into place.
Until next time, I bid you, dear reader, adieu!
