I’ve always been a decision maker.  In fact, during my time with the Boss, that is probably the one thing that has made the most difference in my success, the ability to make decisions.  During meetings, I would make decisions.  Outside of meetings, I would make decisions.  In my cube, I would make decisions.  In the hall, I would make decisions.

I feel that this ability to make decisions really set me apart from a large number of other people who were also employees, and it allowed me to be “successful” in my job.  I would make decisions, and many people are afraid to make decisions. 

I wasn’t afraid to make decisions because they were always based on a good understanding of the work.  I understood the technology, and so I always felt like I could at least make an informed decision.  And if I wasn’t informed, I would get informed, and then make a decision.  So by having a good base of information, I felt confident about making decisions.  This information came from experience over time as well as the experiences of a humongous number of people…upwards of thousands.  I’ll blog more about this in a later posting.

So after being so used to making decisions, imagine my surprise when I came to a crossroads in my life and couldn’t make a decision.  This decision hung me up for a very long time, at least 2-3 years…that decision, to be Boss-Free.

For years I considered my unhappiness with my job, wishing that I didn’t work for someone else and had more control over what I was doing.  While trying to make, what seemed like at the time, this very crucial decision, two things stood in my way:  a Lack of Information and Fear, or LIF.

Lack of Information and Fear went hand in hand in my case, which is why I have combined them as LIF.  The lack of information fed my fear.  A fear to make a serious decision actually has a name, decidophobia (yes, it is real, look it up!). 

So how did I get over my decidophobia?  How did I move past the LIF?

At first, I attempted to approach this decision the same way I made technology decisions in my job:  I used my experiences.  Unfortunately, my experiences only went so far.  I knew that I could quit my job and get another job, as I had done that many times in my career.  I didn’t know that I could quit my job and be Boss-Free, because I had never done it before.

But there was even more information  that I lacked, and that was a clear direction of what I wanted to do if I did quit my job.  I knew I didn’t like working for someone else, but what did I like to do?  What would make me happy? 

I ran into this question while discussing the decision with my girlfriend.  She has her own successful business and is very happy with what she does.  She enjoys her job, she enjoys going to work, and she never sees herself as not wanting to continue working.  This was a huge eye opener to me…someone that loved their job?  Someone that never wanted to retire?  What job could I do that would make me so happy?

Well, nothing sprang to mind.  I ran across a whole slew of different options in my head, but “job” and “happy” never really seemed to fit together.  I couldn’t think of any “job” that would make me “happy”.  This exacerbated the  problem of making the decision, because it was another piece of information I didn’t have.

So I reached for my second decision making hammer, other peoples experiences.  I researched quite a bit on the internet, and also bought some books related to owning your own business.  Through searching on Amazon.com, I stumbled upon a book title that grabbed my attention called “The 4-Hour Workweek” and written by Timothy Ferriss.  This blog isn’t going to be a book review, but there were two specific things that Timothy mentioned in his book that spoke directly to my LIF.

First, he helped me to answer my question, “What would make me happy?”, by changing the question.  He suggested that rather than searching specifically for what it would be that would make me happy, that I replace happiness with excitement, and ask the question, “What would excite me.”  Ah hah, that question I can more easily answer.  This question made perfect sense to me when I looked at my unhappiness in my job…I was bored...and boredom really did equate to unhappiness.  What I needed was to find what was exciting!

The second statement was simpler, but also made a big impact in my ability to make decision, as it addressed the F.  It is a simple statement, but really is profound to me…and it goes like this:  “What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.”  I plan to expound on this in another blog, but spend some time thinking about it.  What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.  Consider other things in your life that you fear doing, and look at whether they are things that “you most need to do”.  I bet you will come to the same conclusion I did.

So I did it, I conquered my LIF using these two simple things.  I did something that I found exciting, and I did something that I most feared, I quit my job to become Boss-Free.   I couldn’t be happier.