Your Life Is Like a Bag of Avocados

This metaphor comparing your life to a bag of avocados is ripe for cutting into, so think about it or risk rotten results.

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Life Is Like a Bag of Avocados

You can never be sure when the time is ripe.

“Is this ripe or not?”

But when in doubt, itโ€™s better to take action than do nothing.

cutting avocado
“Here goes nothingโ€ฆ.”

Because if your action turns out to be a mistakeโ€ฆ

looking at unripe avocado
“Oh no! It’s not ripe.”

โ€ฆas long as you didnโ€™t act thoughtlesslyโ€ฆ

eating a green avocado
“YOLO!”

โ€ฆthe consequences are unlikely to be as bad as you fear.

“NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”

Because youโ€™ll come up with self-justifying excuses.

Avocados never go ripe
“Pfft. Walmart avocados. They never go ripe.”

Because youโ€™ll find a way to make the most of the situation.

Shrugging at not-yet-ripe avocado
“I can still use it in a smoothie.”

And, often, you can afford to try again.

Pulling out a second avocado to try again
“This one looks better.”

But if you do nothingโ€ฆ

“Probably safest to wait.”

You may miss your window and be stuck with a rotten feeling, wondering what might have been.

Throwing bag of avocados into compost
“What a waste of my bag of avocados.”

Plus, the more you act, the better your judgment.

Smelling an avocado
“Needs 37 more minutes.โ€ฆ beside a banana.”

And the more avocados youโ€™ll ultimately enjoyโ€”with fewer rotten regrets.

Enjoying an avocado
“Yummmmmm.”

So go find an avocado that might be ripe and slice it.

Youtube video

My Super Rotten (Non-)Move

For a real-life lesson about this that cost me hundreds of thousands of avocados, watch my new video:

Youtube video

Thought Starters

  • ๐Ÿช‚ Less default, more do-fault: “It should be the default that the status quo is a bad thing; instead of justifying why something should be done, the burden of proof should rest on those who believe things should remain the same.” – Ben Thompson
  • ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ Be satisfice-actory. “Satisfice” is one of my favorite words. It’s a mash-up of satisfy and suffice and means to go with the minimum satisfactory decision rather than overcomplicate and overthink things in pursuit of perfection.
  • ๐Ÿงท Play it unsafe? “I didn’t want to be in the business of playing it safe. I wanted to be in the business of creating possibilities for greatness.” – Bob Iger
  • ๐Ÿ™ƒ Flip it. If you were doing [whatever you’re vacillating about] already, how likely would you go back to your current status quo?

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About the author

I decode what makes people different and help them build extraordinary things with it. Creator of Innate Edge. Writer of The Zag.

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Hey, I'm Chris.

Iโ€™m a "human uniqueness engineer," researching how to leverage your one-of-a-kind wiring for compounding advantage.

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