Yogi Berra is famously quoted as having said,” When you come to a fork in the road… take it.”
Some people think that’s funny because it may be referring to an actual fork, like a utensil is laying in the road.
One explanation of why Berra said that, though, is less about a play on words on more about something practical: He was giving directions to a fellow baseball player on how to get to his house and there was a point in the directions where there is a fork in the road, but either path led to Yogi’s house.
A fork in the road is also a metaphor for a decision point we have to make and decisions often create anxiety.
A graduate school professor of mine once wisely said, “Activity is the antidote to anxiety.”
And this makes a lot of sense because part of what causes anxiety is a worry about the outcome of the decision that we need to make.
Taking some action – even a small one– relieves anxiety because we’ve started to do something about it.
I don’t mean you should take a random action just to do something.
But consider that whatever choice you make or what road you go down, there’s going to be an adventure there. There’s going to be something to learn and you will have overcome the obstacle of inaction by choosing to do something.
Again, I don’t mean that a major life decision should be left up to a coin flip. But it’s possible that simply flipping the coin can be the start of other decisions that do make a difference.
It can start with a very small thing.