Today's quotation:

Not all of your decisions will be correct.  None of us is perfect.  But if you get into the habit of making decisions, experience will develop your judgment to a point where more and more of your decisions will be right.  After all, it is better to be right 51 percent of the time and get something done, than it is to get nothing done because you fear to reach a decision.

H.W. Andrews 

Today's Meditation:

This is a truth that I learned the hard way-- my inability to make decisions hurt me quite a lot in my early years, so I taught myself to make decisions quickly and decisively when necessary, without trying to overthink.  After all, if I spend time thinking about something, I can come up with at least 243 different possible decisions to make, and I would never be able to choose between them.  Nowadays, though, when necessary I simply say, "Okay, I'm doing this."  And then I do it.

I'm not always right.  It's not always the best of all possible decisions.  But at least I get something done, and I have to say that I'm well over 51% overall because I don't just make decisions without thinking at all.  The difference is that I weigh my choices and then create a point at which there's no more weighing-- and that's when I decide.  It's been a very positive trait to add to my life, and I don't spend a lot of time agonizing or worrying about things that may or may not result from my decisions.

It's important that we allow ourselves to reach a decision, and then to follow that decision.  We can always change our minds later if necessary, but usually I find that that's not necessary.  If I truly consider my options and then decide, I have to realize that any of three or four decisions might have been just as good; they would have had slightly different results, but the different results wouldn't have been any worse or better.

Many of us have a hard time deciding because we think that a different decision is the "better" one-- ours will be wrong.  But in life there's rarely one clear answer, rarely one clear road to follow.  Sometimes, two or three or ten decisions may be just as good as each other-- so it's important that we train ourselves to be able to make decisions and move on with life rather than finding ourselves stuck in one place because we're unable to make decisions that truly need to be made.

For further thought:

Few people know this, but any decision is acceptable when you can't decide.  The trick is to make the decision right because you made it.  In other words, when you are torn between two roads, pick one and then make the one you picked right.  In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter.  If you can't see down the road enough to know which decision to make, then no one can fault you for making a decision.  Of course, in a pinch, you could always flip a coin.

Joe Vitale
Life's Missing Instruction Manual

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