We all make decisions every day but unfortunately from a very early age we have it instilled in us that we must make the ‘right’ decisions throughout our lives or face the consequences. These strategies usually start developing from the age of 5 years old onwards, mostly acquired unconsciously from our parents or guardians before being reinforced in the educational establishments of the world.
The problem with this way of thinking is that it can lead to ‘analysis paralysis’ whereby you put off making important decisions until you have enough information to judge the consequences. And, as time goes on, the level of information you determine to be ‘enough’ can grow and grow – holding you back from progressing in you business or personal life.
This is not to say that you should just take decisions in a random fashion without weighing up the pros and cons. Nor should you fail to consult with another should you not have sufficient knowledge or expertise. The truth, however is that most of us irrespective of our levels of knowledge or prior experience have a ‘gut instinct’ usually within several seconds about what decision we would make.
Most successful entrepreneurs are able to manifest near instant decisions knowing instinctively how to react to any given situation. But how do they do this. Well consider this philosophy and how, if you was to adopt it, it could change the way you behave or expedite your progress:
1. Good decisions are built on a foundation of learning.
2. Good learning comes from making mistakes.
3. Mistakes are born from making bad decisions.
If you buy into the above principals it is plain to see that you therefore cannot ‘not’ make an effective decision as you will either succeed in achieving a result or succeed in learning, therefore improving the effectiveness of future decisions.
Why not take this model and apply it right now about something you may have wanted to make a decision on. Decisions are like muscles, in order to make them good, effective, powerful and useful you need to exercise them, so exercise your decision making muscles today.
John Paul Hill is an international Entrepreneur Coach. He is co-founder of Advance Entrepeneur, a series of powerful Entrepreneur Development programmes and the Advance Entrepreneur which is a completely free subscription Entrepreneur Magazine. You can find out more at
http://www.advance-entrepreneur.com & subscribe to the free entrepreneur magazine.
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