In 2016, five friends and I built a boat made from recycled plastic bottles and travelled the length of the Mississippi River. I’ll write more about it in a later post, but if you’re interested, you can watch the short documentary we produced here.
One thing I learnt was everyone will have an opinion about what you should or shouldn’t do.
Part of our preparation was to seek advice from others. Surprisingly, those who’d travelled the river before said “you’re going to be fine”, whereas those who hadn’t said “you’re unlikely to make it safely”. Some even went as far to say “you’ll likely die!”
We can’t control others’ opinions, but we can control who we listen to.
What we allow through our ears, we allow into our minds, and ultimately into our actions. Had we listened to the people with no experience on the river, we’d have never set sail in the first place.
When embarking on a challenging endeavour (job, relationship, travel, or project), it’s worth considering the believability of each person offering you an opinion. Ray Dalio says that we should give a higher weighting to the opinions of people who are experienced and wise in the area we are seeking advice in. When preparing for the Mississippi River, I spoke to more than 5 people who’d done it before. They helped me see the challenges I’d be facing in a clear light, rather than projecting their fears of the unknown on to me.
In the weeks and months ahead, you’ll no doubt have to make a few important decisions. The question is: who are you listening to?