Caution is generally a good thing but too much of it can be paralysing, writes Jim Bright.

James has been ruminating over a career change for some time, and he writes: "After spending the past three years thinking about whether I should move or not, I have finally come to the decision to leave my organisation for a new role ... All I need to do now is to convince myself."

Frankly, when I read James' email and got to this part, my first reaction was, "Well, it will probably take you another three years to convince yourself and by the time you've done that, things will have changed and you'll have to start over again!"

One of the most potent barriers to acting on career decisions is worrying about getting the decision exactly right. This places an unfair, indeed impossible, burden on the poor old career decision to deliver a level of certitude we do not usually demand in other realms of our life.

For drivers out there, think of the last time you made a right turn at a junction.

Did you ensure it was safe to make the manoeuvre before going ahead? Well, of course you did, sort of. Put your hand up if you looked left and right. Now keep your hand up if you looked left and right a second time. Still lots of hands up. Keep your hand up if you personally checked the brakes, steering, fuel and horn systems before making the turn. Where have all the hands gone? Anyone who said yes to that might consider giving up driving, or seeking appropriate clinical support.

In other words, we routinely carry out potentially life-threatening acts such as turning at an intersection and accept a certain amount of uncertainty in decision making to avoid total paralysis. Yet that logic goes out the window when we make a career decision that is usually far less life-threatening.

Part of the problem is that we are encouraged to think before we act. We are told it is sensible to think through all the possibilities and to weigh up rationally our best course of action. It sounds great in theory but how many people go to such lengths? Did you think through every plausible alternative when choosing your life partner?

Thought not. What about that home you live in? Did that come about through painstaking research of all the social, financial, emotional, geographical and aspirational considerations? Probably not for many of us.

Another approach to decision making is to act before you think or, perhaps less provocatively, to act and learn. The point is that taking action can be one of the best ways to discover new facts about your options and yourself. It is an approach successful people in business often adopt.

For instance, Henry Ford famously said, "If I'd listened to customers I would have designed a faster horse," and, more recently, the late Steve Jobs, of Apple, said, "A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." Perhaps this philosophy is most pithily summed up by Richard Branson's "Screw it, let's do it".

So, for James, extensive thinking has not yielded a clear answer, perhaps because there is no clear answer. In which case he might benefit from putting aside all objections and acting.

James might be better advised to focus on ways to maximise the success of his moves as well as think about how to recover from situations in which things do not work out, instead of ruminating on the pros and cons.

This is more than having a plan B but involves embracing a philosophy of continual planning and developing the skills to navigate through or away from turbulence.

Such career survival skills will give him the confidence to make a move or moves that, in turn, increase his chances of enhancing his career and satisfaction.

Jim Bright - Jim Bright is professor of career education and development at ACU and a partner at career management consultancy Bright and Associates

Email marked clearly "FOR PUBLICATION" to brightside@jimbright.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheFactoryPod.