Up to a higher level directory
Twig connects to branch, branch connects to limb, limb connects to trunk. (Image by Giani Pralea)
Prior to a move, I was trying to use Marie Kondo’s framework to decide which books to keep and which to donate.
Holding each book in turn, I asked myself, “Does this book ‘spark joy’?” I hemmed and hawed as I began to separate the books into two piles. This was tricky! I didn’t feel confident in my assessments at all. There was too much nuance in each decision. This was going to take forever.
I stopped for a moment and just stood there, considering all of the books. Then, resolutely, I swept every book on the shelf, along with all of the books I’d already evaluated, into the “donate” box.
I had gone into the process with the assumption that I would keep at least some of the books—that at least some of them would spark joy. When I questioned this assumption, I realized that none of them did.
Of course, I could have questioned the selection criteria as well. Who cares if the books spark joy? And in fact, I could question the endeavor itself. I didn’t have to get rid of any of the books in my collection. A move doesn’t always have to involve a culling.
Sometimes, when we find ourselves struggling to make a choice between two options, we can break out of our dilemma by recognizing that it isn’t one, in the sense that we are not limited to only two possibilities to choose from.
And when we investigate further, we might discover that we’ve arrived at our existing options as a result of a previous decision. We’re embedded in a subdirectory or subfolder that prevents us from seeing the full scope of opportunities at hand. It is only when we question or even unmake the previous decision and move up to a higher level directory that we can resolve our difficulty or solve our problem.
For instance, suppose I were having trouble deciding which flight to take to go to an event. This one is too early, that one is too expensive, et cetera. Upon reflection, I might recognize that I’m only looking at flights from one airline. I could move out of this subdirectory and have more to choose from.
I might even go up another level and reconsider whether air travel is the best way to make this trip. What about traveling by bus, train, or car?
Then, I could move to an even higher directory and revisit a foundational decision: Whether to go on the trip or not. When I give myself permission to skip the trip, I might feel a profound sense of relief that explains why none of the flights were quite right.
Obviously, we can question any decision or assumption without moving up through the directories in order. Just as with Mac’s Finder or Windows’ File Explorer, you can do a quick search, bypassing the hierarchy to find anything you want regardless of the subdirectory or folder it lives in.
However, my construct here isn’t just a metaphor. Identifying the subdirectory we find ourselves in allows us to approach our choices systematically. A common example is a small business owner who is trying to figure out how to grow their business. They’re going around and around and not coming up with any good options.
We can ask questions to determine what problem we’re trying to solve. Do I really need to grow this business? Why are we trying to grow the business? Our answer might be highly practical: “I need an additional $800/month.” Now we’ve moved into a higher level directory, effectively unmaking the decision to gain this extra money by growing this particular business.
From there, we can come up with lots of other options for bringing in that $800 each month, some of which might be much more efficient than growing the business. For example, simply raising prices might yield the desired return. So could getting a part-time job.
If we ask a question like, “Do I really need an additional $800 per month?” or “Why do I need $800 more per month?”, we’re moving up and out of another subdirectory. Maybe we can cut expenses instead of adding income.
When we get ourselves out of the sub-sub-subdirectory we don’t even realize that we’re in, we can make better strategic decisions instead of merely tactical ones. And when we spend time in the top-level directory, we can determine what matters most to us and make choices from an elevated perspective in which we’re aligned with our most deeply-held values. From there, we will find more joy and success, spend less time in indecision and wheel-spinning, and contribute to the world in our highest capacity.
