Practice
Progressing
Deliberate
Decisions
By
Jeffrey Hansler, CSP
Every
day you make hundreds of decisions. Most of the
decisions are made without a great amount of thought.
Only when you are faced with a decision that you feel has
critical consequences or risk associated with it, do you
hesitate.
During
periods of change, the decisions you are faced with often
have greater consequences. With each step, you may require a
critical decision to be made. Under these conditions you may
find yourself bogged down with indecisiveness. Afraid of
making the "wrong" decision, you stop making any
decisions. If indecisiveness continues, it creates stress
and could require medical assistance.
Our
minds and bodies were created to progress. Without
decisions there can be no progress. At some point any
decision is better than no decision. Be deliberate about
your decision making.
It
is the fear of undesired consequences that leads to
indecisiveness. If you were lost in the desert, a
wrong turn could lead you away from necessary water.
The result could be death. Stuck in a bad
relationship, you might stay, afraid to let go of
"something" and end up with "nothing".
Making decisions does involve risk - you may not get the
results you desire, and a "transition decision"
may not be possible.
To
prepare yourself for making hard decisions, you can
practice. Instead of searching and pondering through a
restaurant menu, practice your decision making. Open
your menu, run through each item once, and make a selection
immediately. It’s a way of practicing progress.
The
key to successful decision making is reducing risk. If
you practice making decisions, you are in fact reducing the
biggest risk of decisions. You will have gained the
experience that separates successful people from the pack -
the ability to maintain progress and momentum by having made
a series of conscious and effective decisions.
Realize
that if the decision does not bear the results you intended,
as an effective decision maker, you are well prepared to
make new decisions as you progress to your desires.
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Jeffrey
Hansler is a professional speaker, author, and consultant.
He is a frequent speaker at association events and is the
author of Sell Little Red Hen! Sell! He can be reached at jhansler@oxfordco.com.
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©
2004 Jeffrey Hansler All rights reserved
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