An option is live if it’s a real possibility. This could be a practical choice you can make. It also appeals to you; it energizes you, like electricity running through a live wire.
An option is dead if it is impossible. This could feel like an impractical choice, or so infeasible that it feels unacceptable.
Live and dead options don’t have to stay that way. They are organic. You can breathe life into a dead option, and you can let a live option die.
Be honest with yourself about which options are live and dead. It’s important to acknowledge that.
If you believe the task ahead of you is impossible—and it’s causing you anxiety—maybe you’re treating a dead option as if it were live.
Something you want—your dream job, for example—may be a dead option to you for now. However, you can take steps to make it possible. You can breathe life into it, effectively making the option live.
Live options don’t just fall into your lap. It costs energy, time, and focus to notice and create them. Maintaining them also isn’t free.
When Freddie Roach experienced symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, his professional career as a boxer became a dead option. Eventually, when he was helping a friend, he came across a new live option: to become a boxing coach.
Another story comes to mind: a woman wanted to live in Africa, but needed to stay in the U.S. to take care of family. Moving to Africa was a dead option. She told her teacher, who suggested that she take shorter trips to Africa twice a year. The ideas started flowing. She needed a more flexible job, her brother could care for her parents while she was gone. She had a live option. (Thanks to Barbara Sher and her book Refuse to Choose.)
Simply put: A good teacher will help you turn a dead option into a live one.
Learning is a great way to create more live options for yourself and your friends.
Interpreted the best possible way, “low hanging fruit”—or projects within arm’s reach—are always live options.