How good are you at making decisions?

I want to talk to you about making decisions today.

Some people are really good at making decisions! They are quick, and they are final. They don’t waste time - they assess the situation and they DECIDE.

What does the word DECIDE mean?

It comes from the Latin, the source of so many lovely words in our language!

De - means from, or off … depart, destruction, demarcate … and the -CIDE part comes from kill or cut … homicide, genocide, scissors …

So what does it mean when you make a decision? It means that you CUT OFF any other course of action. You remove all the other options and pick one.

But how many of us second-guess ourselves? We make a decision then we have second thoughts. We dither, We can’t decide.

So what happens?

NOTHING happens!

We can’t move forward in two directions at once, so we stay exactly where we are!

Confusion!

There’s a saying in marketing - that the confused mind never buys. They are faced with conflicting information and they are unable to make what they see as a good decision so they make NO decision and stay where they are.

By the way, this is something we look at critically in my Brilliant Family Dog Trainer Business Program. That nothing is ever going to happen if we don’t make some decisions about our business, then get it out there!

Now decision-making is an art and it’s a skill, and like any skill, you can learn how to do it! You don’t have to stay in the land of dithering for ever. You can look at situations and make an informed decision which you can honour.

You cut off the other paths and start out on the path you’ve chosen. (And don’t worry - you can always make another decision later and change course again!)

We’re never stuck in the path we’ve chosen: there’s always a way out.

For today I want you to digest this and look at where you are - perhaps delaying making the decisions that can catapult you forward! Work out what they are, and next week we’ll investigate how to make better decisions, and faster.