Andrew Harrington

A fork in the road approaches us all, whether it be a career choice, an important family decision or simply deciding what to do over the weekend. Sometimes life’s decisions seem impossible to make, but lucky for you, the coach is on the clock.

We are going to divide this solution into a few categories. The first of these is making a decision on whether you should or should not do something. Say you got a great job offer; however, it would take you far away from your family.

First, rather than thinking of your immediate self or anyone else, think about yourself in 10 years. Can you see yourself in the role for 10 years? Will you be happy despite the long distance from your loved ones? Is it a job you will truly love?

If you make it through that line of questioning and still see things as a net positive, what’s holding you back?

Now for the day-to-day decisions. For me personally, this pops up most frequently when deciding on weekend plans. Decisions can get as simple as what to eat for dinner, yet somehow they seem impossible to navigate at times.

My biggest piece of advice is to think with your heart instead of your mind. The world would not be perfect if everyone thought with their hearts instead of their minds, but there would be steps in the right direction without a doubt.

The brain is the most powerful organ in the human body. It rightfully controls the other organs of the body. Just like it is not good for a single person to make every single decision in the world, sometimes you have to take the steering wheel away from the brain a time or two.

If two separate friend groups are making plans for a Saturday and you have to decide, do what YOU want to do. Your friendship will not end because you chose the other friends, and if it does, it was not a good friendship in the first place. If you chose the idea that did not sound as fun, you will spend the whole outing second guessing in your head, which is ultimately not fair to the friends that you are with trying to have a good time.

Since I have not gotten off as many coach references as my previous installment, I have one more category to dive into: the risky decision. Often the time comes when you have the chance to go for it all, shoot the full courter or toss the Hail Mary that decides your fate. In life, this can come as the obvious things like a career decision or asking someone out on a date, but just the way you live life can have risks as well. Putting yourself out there is one of the riskiest things someone can do, because if people do not like the real you after you opened yourself up for them to see, it feels like an attack on you as a person. Is that the case? Probably, yet you cannot change who you are because of what someone else will think.

If you have a question for Coach Andrew, email him at andrew@piercecountyjournal.news