BRANDEN

Reasons to Give Up
Copywrite © 2003 Branden Davis

Alright, there are probably hundreds, thousands, or even millions of good reasons to give up on the world, life etc... What I intend to do is discuss them, one at a time.

Reason to give up #3

You will never want what you have. This is something similar to "The grass is always greener on the other side". When you finally buckle down and make a decision, even a minor decision, you always regret not having the alternative. I have a hard time at the bar choosing between rum, or whiskey. Half of me will be drinking the rum amazed at how good it is, while the other half wonders if the whiskey would have tasted better, or felt a little warmer going down. Life altering decisions terrify me! If you show weakness, hesitate, or falter in the face of decision you appear indecisive and unmanly. To avoid disappointing John Wayne, I always pop off an answer regardless of how much making such a choice freaks me out. How different would our lives be if we refused to make the truly hard decisions until we knew we were ready? Time never allows for such luxuries. The really big decisions are almost always accompanied by a time limitation or worse, a situational restriction that makes going back and choosing the alternative impossible at any other point in time.

A good example of such a phenomenon is the recent rash of marriages breaking out in my once bachelorish group of close personal friends. Imagine for a moment how much "Now or never" pressure can charge a situation like that. At least if ya knocked the lucky girl up first there is no real question about marriage being the smart move. That is where our only salvation from can be found. We have to arrange our life so that we have no alternatives... We HAVE to knock the girl up first! No options = no pressure = no "what ifs" ... In fact , ya could say, if life was perfect, then the path of our lives would be written at birth. All the good and all the bad would be set in stone before we made a single move. If our fate is sealed from day one, then there is no reason to fear, or strain to achieve goals. You could give up completely and life would be no better or worse for you.

As things are, every choice made will leave a lingering question about the road not taken. Every hard moment will include the question "What if I had chosen differently?" That means even when you make the right call, you'll second guess yourself into misery. The victory becomes as painful as a failure. Victory might as well be failure. You are doomed. I am doomed. We might as well give up.