It can solve enormous problems. It can propel a life. It is taught in no school and almost no boardroom. It is called Decision—and most people have never truly made one.
The people earning six and seven figures are not smarter, luckier, or more credentialed than you. They have developed one mental skill: they decide — quickly, cleanly, without waiting on the opinions of others.
Your health. Your relationships. Your money. Your work. Your peace of mind. All of it is downstream of the same hidden lever — your ability, or inability, to choose.
Decision-making brings order to your mind. That order is then reflected in your outer world — your results.
Psychiatry has a word for what happens when two opposite feelings live inside you at the same time: ambivalence. Left there long enough, it stops being a thought and starts being a war. You don't live. You merely exist.
Carried for weeks. Sometimes years.
Carried for weeks. Sometimes years.
Carried for weeks. Sometimes years.
Carried for weeks. Sometimes years.
Carried for weeks. Sometimes years.
Carried for weeks. Sometimes years.
The cause of ambivalence is indecision. But indecision itself is only a symptom. Underneath it is something quieter and more costly: a fragile self-image. Strong deciders are not braver. They are simply not afraid of being wrong.
Decide right where you are,
with whatever you've got.
This is precisely why most people never master this part of life. They let their resources dictate if and when a decision will be made. The decision comes first. The resources arrive in answer to it.
Once you make the decision, you will find all the people,
resources and ideas you need — every time.
Kennedy asked Werner von Braun the question. The answer came back in five words.
"The will to do it."
Kennedy never asked if it was possible. He never asked what it would cost. He never asked a single one of the thousand reasonable questions available to him. He decided. The objective was accomplished in his mind the moment the decision was made. Natural law took care of the rest.
Failing does not make you a failure. Quitting does. And quitting is just a decision wearing a softer name.
The world remembers Babe Ruth for the home runs. Almost nobody quotes the strikeouts — and there were nearly twice as many.
"If you flunk 999 times and succeed once, you're in." — Charles Kettering
Don't worry about failing. It will toughen you up and get you ready for the win that is already coming.
More dreams are buried by circumstance than by any other single factor. Circumstances may cause a detour. They should never be allowed to cause a decision.
I would, but I don't have the money.
I would, but I don't have the time.
I would, but I don't know how.
I would, but they wouldn't understand.
I would, but it's not the right season.
I would, but what if it doesn't work?
"Circumstances? I make them."— NAPOLEON
You book flights in advance. You reserve cars in advance. You can do the same with the choices that matter most. When the moment arrives, there is nothing left to debate.
The decision is made in advance and, well-tempered with discipline, leads to the desired results.
Logical. Linear. Safe.
Charged. Unreasonable. Alive.
When you get the vision, freeze-frame it with a decision. Don't worry about how. Don't worry about where the resources will come from. Charge the decision with enthusiasm — and then refuse to worry about how it will happen.
"The most pathetic person in the world is one who has sight but no vision."
"If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves."
"Decide what you want. Decide what you are prepared to give up to get it. Set your mind on it. Get on with the work."
"Go as far as you can see. When you get there, you will see how to go farther."
Don't journal them. Don't workshop them. Just make them — right where you are, with whatever you've got.
The objective is accomplished
the second you decide.
Everything after — the people, the resources, the timing, the proof — arrives in answer to that moment. Natural law takes care of the rest.