Don’t mistake yourself for a hockey player on the run

One common trait I see out there is making fast decisions.

We favor movement.

Keep the wheels in motion.

Onward!

To the next thing.

I can’t help but think if this is really smart? And I probably say this because I’m a thinker. I like to weigh my options, think for a while, forget about it, and then one day feel in my stomach, “damn, that is the right thing to do.”

But am I wrong?

The easy answer is “it depends”.

Of course.

It always depends. I mean if you’re a hockey player winning the puck in the defensive zone and rushing on offense, you can’t sit around weighing your options. No, if you’re a hockey player on the run, you better make that decision, or the coach will come down on you.

But very few of us are hockey players on the run.

No, most of us have normal lives.

We go to work or run a business, buy things, go on vacation, have kids.

And in that case…

In Titan, the biography about the oil behemoth John D. Rockefeller, there are two quotes from John’s childhood that gives us a hint that in action might be a good thing.

John was a quiet thinker.

And played chess with his friends from time to time.

(Kind of stereotypical activity, for an old-school soon-to-be the richest man in the world, but it is what it is.)

And when playing chess, John was not a hockey player on the run.

No, he weighed his options. Played out a bunch of scenarios in his head before making a move.

And his friends?

They called him slow. “Come on John!”

“Make a move!”

To which he replied:

“I’ll make my move when I’ve decided what to do. You don’t think I play to lose, do you?”

The second one was from his caring mother.

Simply:

“We’ll let it simmer.”

Remember: being in motion is not the same as taking action.

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