The Flu Shot: Should I or Shouldn't I?

You've probably heard all you want to hear about the Flu vaccination by now: I know I certainly have. So this article isn’t really about the flu shot – it's actually about making decisions. What brought his topic to mind, though, is that I’ve recently decided to forego the shot this year and go the homeopathic route instead.

Is this because I know better than those who advocate the vaccination? No. Might I end up regretting not getting the shot? Maybe. I don’t know.

And it’s precisely because I don’t know that I had to make that decision with my gut. This doesn’t mean that my gut is necessarily right – but because of the vast array of conflicting opinions and information to be found on the topic, my head simply wasn’t able to make the choice.

But, again, this isn’t just about the flu shot – it’s about all of the personal decisions we need to make in our continuous striving for growth and wholeness. Ideally, we can search for the information we need, find it, and make a decision based on what we’ve just learned (assuming that it’s accurate). Unfortunately, though, there are a lot of things that just don’t work that way. And so we have to make a decision based on other things and hope for the best.

We all do the best with what we’ve got at any given point, and we can never predict with 100% accuracy how things are going to turn out. All of our decisions are based upon some combination of past experience, hard data and hearsay, intuition and faith. Sometimes we’re guided by our values and beliefs, and at other times we feel safer playing the odds. In any case, decisions have to be made.

But it’s important to understand the difference between the decisions that are irresponsibly founded on intuition (where if we actually cared to do the work we could come up with something more informed), and the decisions that need to be made when intuition is truly all we’ve got.

It takes a lot of discipline, patience, and critical thought to thoroughly examine and investigate our options and the potential implications of our choices – to do our due diligence. But it’s an important endeavour: many people too often get lazy with this and act mindlessly and impulsively; sometimes with serious consequences. And many of us also tend to take it too far the other way: we over-think our lives and ultimately succumb to overwhelm and ‘analysis paralysis’ – never taking the risks that can lead to great rewards.

So let’s always remember to be thoughtful with our choices, and take care in our actions. And when we do feel stuck, fearful, or confused after an honest assessment, let’s learn to trust that things often turn out okay anyway – and that we can handle the unanticipated variables with grace and resilience.

Planning For Life

Most of us plan reasonably well: we easily decide what to wear in the morning, what to have for dinner in the evening, what route to take to work. We also plan without too much difficulty the tasks of our jobs: how we prioritize our to-do lists, the most efficient ways to get things done…

But many of us fall short when it comes to taking a longer-term view of our lives. Granted, this doesn’t apply to everyone: some of us are better than others with this level of planning – but if you were to ask around (and people were completely honest with their responses), you’d likely find that a lot of us really are lacking in this area.

A friend of mine, who had worked in a nursing home, told me once that she had come to realize an important difference between the happy tenants in the home and the ones who seemed depressed: the unhappy ones failed to plan, she said. Not just financially, but in any way.

So what is your strategic and tactical plan for creating a fulfilling life? In other words, what is your long-term vision (for your health, your relationships, your financial situation, your legacy…) – and what goals do you need to set out to help realize that vision?

Operationally, what do you need to be doing now – what habits, skills, and relationships do you need to cultivate? What resources do you need to accomplish your goals?

And what is your control system (i.e., when you get off track, how do you measure your results and get refocused)? Do you have a contingency plan?

These questions may seem daunting – but as they say, “the devil (or God) is in the details”. How specific you get with your plan is entirely up to you: we all have different preferences and needs, and there’s no one right way to tackle this. You may set very clear 1, 2, 5, and 10-year SMART Goals for your life, for example; or you may stay at the visionary level and let the details take care of themselves (perhaps using a Vision Board as a tool).

Or better yet, you might use a combination of these approaches.

It’s very rewarding to find that balance between a disciplined approach to life and not taking the whole thing too seriously. It’s also empowering to be able to take control over what we can in our lives, while understanding the virtues of surrender. The creation of a flexible and evolving life plan helps us to honor and integrate these perspectives, as well as develop a clarity of intention and a stronger sense of purpose and hope.