The Power Of A Decision

I've been completing a course recently around making decisions and even today I wrote a blog post about the difference of decisions and choices (you can read more on that here: https://www.fionajlindsay.com/mlm-blog ). Decisions are just so powerful. They can impact our lives in a singular moment, or can quite literally transform the way we live our lives and affect others. What could be more important than making the 'right' decision? Well, let's investigate that further.

When making decisions in life, it's critical to have a very thorough understanding of what your guiding principle is in your life. What is your creed? By having this understanding, making decisions will be much easier and in complete alignment with your life journey. If you are unsure about where you are wanting to go in your life, then making decisions will be much more challenging and therefore represent a boat sailing the high seas without a motor, rudder or sail - it will just bob about and not end up anywhere. So knowing what exactly is important to you values and beliefs-wise and what your purpose is will make the act of making decisions pretty effortless. You will just know if it is going to take you where you want to go or take you in another direction that you don't feel comfortable with.

Not deciding is also a decision in itself. Not deciding means you are not on-purpose and are not clear about your values, beliefs and what your creed is. As I said above, you end up 'bobbing out' in life with no real direction or purpose. It's a fairly meaningless way to live life, but there are many that do it. This brings about the victim mentality. When someone decides not to not make decisions for themselves, they are invariably subject to the decisions of others which will typically not be in alignment with what this person might want. Then blame comes into play - it leads to a lack of responsibility and one can easily fall into a spiral of lack of control that can be difficult to elevate oneself out of. Not really a situation I would personally want to be in myself.

To be deliberate in life, look closely at what is working and what is not. If something really feels as though you are out of alignment (ie something just doesn't feel right), the make a deicision to change it! We humans are not trees - we can move. Remember that eagles don't flock but turkeys do. lol You will be guided by your intuition if something feels not quite right - sometimes you just need to take the time to listen.

In this course I've been doing I learned about the "Anatomy Of A Decision". I'll share quickly the process (obviously the devil is in the detail but the course is quite thorough so I won't do that here). Firstly, you need to observe - be willing to see what is going right and not. Secondly, identify what it is you really want. Thirdly, gather the information required in order to make the decision. Fourthly, narrow down your choices. Fifth - agree to disagree. Some people will turn out to be obstacles on your path to where you want to go. We are all on different journeys so be willing to live and let live. Sixth - eliminate the choices that don't work for you. Seventh - take action - make the decision. Eighth - make the change and be willing to course correct along the way. Remember that the space shuttle is usually off 99.9% of the time but they always reach their destination through several small course corrections. Ninth - be firm in your point of view. There is no right or wrong - only that you think that is. As in number 5 - it's perfectly okay to agree to disagree with others. That's what makes us human. Lastly, tenth - finish the job and follow through. You don't program your GPS and decide two streets from your destination to quit because you can't be bothered. Of course not - you continue to your destination. So be willing to follow through and complete the task.

So there you have it. Decisions are such an essential part of deliberate living and yet so many don't fully utilize nor understand the power of making a decision can have. Imagine if Edison had quit at the 9,000th try or Bill Gates had decided to stay in Uni. We would certainly all be living very different lives. Consider this when you make your next decision. And live your life deliberately. There is power, fulfilment and satisfaction in doing so.