Every day in our life is full of critical moments.

From approaching potential partners and managing your friendships to conversing with clients.

Just before every action there is a flash in the major centers of the body, generally the heart and the mind.

These flashes can result in either a compulsion to act or create an inhibition to proceed.

While I say slay them both and act from clarity here I want to talk about tackling those flashes that inhibit us.

Because people that are often paralyzed by these often have trouble following through with important decisions in their lives and consequently become trapped in their same old prison.

Strategies for Freedom from Hesitation

Continual Awareness

In order to break free of what holds you back in that second when you think you have already committed yourself, you must be able to sense it in that precise instant.

These flashes cannot be seen by the eyes, you have to develop an internal sense.

Just as when someone attempts to grab your wrist and the hairs detect something allowing you to turn free, your internal sense enables you to break free of internal paralysis before it can seize you.

To develop this sense requires that you discover the difference between how your body and mind feels when it is being propelled by a train of thought or emotion compared to when it is clear and tranquil.

The quickest way to discover this is to sit quietly and close your eyes for about 10 minutes. Notice your thoughts bouncing around in your head and most importantly notice the silence in between them. Now ask yourself:

“What is present during the silence between thoughts?”

You are not looking to answer this in words, rather you want to ask this question to help you explore and feel this silence more.

Once you have sampled it you need to look for it in daily life in each moment. Just pause to feel what exists between thoughts.

The same applies to your heart. Watch how emotions feel in your chest and what it feels like when none are acting.

When you can tell the difference between when you are clear and when a thought/emotion has entered then you have a foundation that will enable you to take control of yourself and your life.

Weapon of Choice

Choose your own form of self confidence. Choose an activity in which you can practice dominating yourself. You want to develop a trust in your own abilities.

I practice martial arts, the esoteric nature of solo katas provides a good practice ground for burning through your enemies.

Meditation and prayer are other techniques that help develop the confidence required to know you can handle any thought or emotion that arises.

Once you know how your tool works you have to practice using it on a day to day basis as any little thought appears. Such that when it comes time to encounter a larger hesitation you can switch it on at will.

Decision Preparation

When it comes to actions that we have time to consider and make decisions about there are some fundamental understandings that can help you lessen the grip that any cause of hesitation can put on you.

1. You will never have perfect and/or complete information for making decisions

Don’t put off action just because you might be wrong in your assumptions about other people. You cannot know for sure how someone will respond to you. Take off the gloves and present yourself to the world.

2. There is no tragedy you cannot recover from

It may seem like there is the possibility of undesirable results from your planned action. But the mind will always make things seem catastrophic when there is nothing to stop you from moving on from whatever happens.

3. Doubt creates the D in Self-Destruction

Do not second guess your decisions. If you have come to a decision through a logical analysis and after weighing your options decided upon an action then you have no reason to doubt your decision to act.

The food that doubt thrives on is the fact that we are stuck with incomplete information. In the case of interacting with other people it is worse because not only do we have limited information but what information we have is actually just our interpretation of the words and actions of another person. Such things are easy for a thought to manipulate to make a case against our action.

If you allow doubt to exist in your thought process it will lead to the destruction of your action.

A method I have been using to nullify persistent doubts is to first realise that a doubt is just another possibility like your other conclusions. Then you consider both the doubt and your other conclusions and assign them each a percentage possibility of being true. Now doubt has no power as is it just another possibility. Next you choose the one with the greatest possibility of being true and act upon its basis.

Understanding these elements will leave you more confident to discard any thought that may doubt action in the critical moments.

Now go for it and burn with fire through the world.