Napoleon Hill, in his book Think and Grow Rich states: Successful people make decisions quickly and change them slowly.
This puzzled me until I realized the reason WHY these people CAN make quick decisions. It is because they are focused on their goals. If you know your goal clearly and unwaveringly you can now make an extremely quick decision that will move you toward your goal. Not only that… because this decision helps move you toward your goal you will not be changing it anytime soon.
My clients often take a long time deciding whether or not to hire me as their coach. Afterwards they tell me they would absolutely do it again without taking the same amount of time. Some thank me that I helped them make that decision. Decisions on purchasing a house, a vehicle, choosing a partner, a time to meet with someone, when a project will be finished, whether or not you can help someone when they ask for help and how you can help them, what to eat for dinner… The list of decisions people find difficult is endless.
If you have strong goals that satisfy your heart’s deepest callings then If a decision is insignificant, it can be made quickly because it really doesn’t matter (dinner on the menu). If the decision is big and has big consequences either way, then it can be made quickly because you know it will help or not help you. Those who aren’t making decisions and then not sticking with the decisions they’ve made are people who don’t know where they’re going.
It all begins with knowing yourself better than you do. In a sense a person who does not have a clear goal doesn’t really have freedom to choose. Every decision is difficult because they don’t know where it leads and they don’t know where they are going. It is confusing to me even when I write these words.
Do you think it is easy or difficult for an olympic athlete to choose between ice cream or greens? While I won’t judge each athlete, I will tell you this much… Those athletes who were completely focused on a gold medal finish in the past few weeks didn’t have a huge problem making the decision that would help them on the day of their events! What is the difference between the olympic gold medalist and yourself? The major difference is how focused they are on their goal.
A challenge as you read these words: how focused can you become on your goals? Oh, you don’t have clear goals? Contact me and I’ll help you out with that 🙂
