There is a squirrel outside my window who lives a more decisive life than most humans I know.
Not a better life. Not a more comfortable one. But definitely a more committed one.
I mean being a squirrel is basically a full-time job of split-second, life-or-death decision making. Every. Single. Day. All Day!
Cross the street? Risky.
Stay put? Also, risky.
Climb the tree? Depends. Who the hell else is in the tree?
Grab the acorn? Sure, but now you’re exposed, vulnerable, and possibly someone’s lunch. Cats? Dogs? Birds?
(Yes, I watched a huge bird snatch a squirrel off a roof once while on a walk. I was horrified, sorta.)
But, back to the squirrel’s decision-making process. There is no committee meeting. No pros and cons list. No “let me circle back after I’ve processed this emotionally.”
Just move or don’t move.
We’ve all seen it. Pretty much every day, unless you live in NYC or LA. Although those NYC squirrels are special. For years, we had an apartment in NYC and one of our neighbors was this black squirrel. That squirrel was crazy. I swear if your eyes met the squirrel’s he would charge at you. He once chased us all the way to our apartment door. We were laughing and running that final block. (Yes, from a squirrel!) The best part was when we ran into the glass door, and the squirrel appeared to throw himself into the door in a threatening manner! Yeah, that NYC squirrel was different. The rats, on the other hand, don’t seem to care! But I digress…..
We’ve seen it. That squirrel.
The one that runs halfway into the street, locks eyes with an oncoming car, and suddenly forgets how decisions work.
Left?
Right?
Wait? Left again?
No. Think I’ll just freeze. Yeah, I’ma definitely freeze. Right here!
Because nothing says survival like standing completely still in the middle of danger, hoping the situation resolves itself.
Spoiler alert! It rarely does.
Now, before we get too judgmental about our furry little friends… (Well, they’re not exactly friends of mine. Destructive little creatures. They not only ate through my siding, they’re chewing the bench by my door, and the support beam for my porch. They are definitely not furry friends of mine!)
But how many of us are doing the exact same thing?
Not with cars.
But with our life.
We step into something; a new idea, a relationship, a career shift, a boundary, a dream we’ve been quietly carrying….
…and then we freeze. (Trust me, this is me right now! Sitting on a completed book, several scripts, and a potentially successful business plan! Frozen AF!)
Not because we don’t know what to do.
But because we are terrified of choosing wrong.
We don’t apply.
We don’t leave.
We don’t start.
We don’t stop.
We hover. We don’t move. We are just stuck. In the middle of the road.
Here’s the thing squirrels understand that we seem to have collectively forgotten.
Indecision is also a decision.
And it is often the most dangerous one.
Because while you’re standing there, paralyzed by the fear of making the “wrong” choice…
Life is still moving. Cars are still coming. But worse than that is that, Opportunities pass. Time passes. Your energy drains into overthinking, instead of action. And suddenly, the risk you were trying to avoid finds you anyway. Squirrels don’t have the luxury of perfection. They don’t get to sit around wondering if the tree on the left is emotionally aligned with their long-term vision.
They move. They adjust. They pivot mid-sprint if they must. And yes, like us humans, sometimes they guess wrong. But more often than not, what saves them isn’t making the perfect decision…
It’s making a damn decision!
Somewhere along the way, we were taught that every choice needs to be final, flawless, and fully guaranteed. That if we pick the wrong path, everything falls apart. So, we wait. We wait for certainty. We wait for clarity. We wait for a sign written in the sky with excellent lighting and a clear call to action.
Meanwhile, life is like,
“Ma’am… the car is coming. MOVE!”
So, here’s a thought. What if the goal isn’t to avoid wrong decision, but to get comfortable with making them? What if changing your mind isn’t failure?
What if choosing anything, with awareness and willingness to adjust is far more powerful than standing still out of fear?
The squirrel doesn’t need a five-year plan. It needs courage for the next five seconds. And honestly? So do we.
Okay, maybe twenty seconds! One of my favorite lines in one of my favorite movies, which I also had the privilege of working on and earned my first screen credit, was We Bought A Zoo. Matt Damon’s character, Benjamin Mee, tells his son, “You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it”.
A fully lived life isn’t built on perfect choices.
It’s built on movement. It’s built on risk. It’s built on deciding, recalibrating, and deciding again. And maybe twenty seconds of insane courage!
So, the next time you find yourself frozen, halfway into something that matters, hear the tiny, chaotic wisdom of the neighborhood squirrel and…
Pick a direction.
Go.
And if it turns out to be the wrong one…
adjust mid-run.
Because the only truly dangerous place to be…
is stuck in the middle of the road.