I’d like to go back to a newsletter topic from the end of last year: the fear of messing up.

I came across the idea in a book called The Jolt Effect, and I’m still talking about what I learnt from it almost a year later (must be good, right?).

Think of a decision you’ve known you need to make for months.

Maybe it’s the hire you keep putting off. The client who costs more than they’re worth. The price rise. The service you should stop offering.

You probably already know what you need to do, so why haven’t you done it yet?

Enter the fear of messing up. We’ve usually got plenty of information to make a decision, but we wait for more. So doing nothing starts to feel like the lower-risk option.

Unfortunately, it isn’t. Not deciding is still a decision. It just doesn’t feel like one. And this is exactly what Mark said in our most recent podcast. 

I’ve summarised his point because, in true Mark fashion, it was a bit of a roundabout conversation, but I recommend giving the full thing a listen here.

Picture yourself about to start a hike. You can walk into the bush and take a wrong turn. Or you can sit at the start of the track, studying the map, and never get anywhere. Only one of those gives you a chance of coming out the other side.

So here’s my challenge for this week:

1. Pick the one decision you’ve been avoiding.
2. Give it a date.
3. Tell someone who’ll hold you accountable to it.

That’s it. You don’t have to get it right. You just have to start walking.

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This is taken from the weekly email written by one of our directors, Roberto Boi. Every Thursday he shares observations, ideas and perspectives from the work we’re doing day to day at Dilate. If you’d like to get it delivered straight to your inbox, you can sign up here.