One of the things people labor over in their lives is decision-making. Choosing the “right” thing to do. Worrying about it, stressing about it. Being anxious over extended periods of time is wearing. If you are in a leadership role, the attempt to fulfill the expectations of others requires decision-making support for others. The truth is no matter how long it takes to make that decision, it is always the same–you have to choose. Trust yourself and decide.

Here’s what I see about decisions:

  1. A decision is always preceded by an emotion
  2. No one knows what the outcome of our decision will be.
  3. Our Insurance policy—Fully commit to our decision

Let’s take a further look at these three:

DECISIONS ARE EMOTION DRIVEN. We are emotional beings. Yet all our lives people have been telling us not to be emotional. Be rational. Use common sense. (You mean do what you you think others would do if they were you?)

Good luck with that one. We have feelings for a purpose or we wouldn’t have them. We intuitively know what to do. Does that mean what we decide always turns out? Of course not. Since we are the performer, we can own our decision and that gives us the best odds for success.

NO ONE KNOWS WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT. When people tell you what you should do, they don’t know. They aren’t in the batter’s box, you are. It’s what they think they would do. Being on-deck isn’t the same as being at bat. Sitting on the bench isn’t being in the game either. It’s okay to listen to what people have to say and when they finish you are still the person at bat.

OUR INSURANCE POLICY. Fully commit to whatever you decide. No second-guessing. Given we don’t know what will happen, we can only evaluate our decision if we have give it 100%. Relax. Take a full swing. Take what you get. Learn from it and take another full swing. Our failure is always not taking the next swing. Life doesn’t quit on you. You quit on you.