Our obsession for success has never been greater than before.
We see it everywhere. Self-made millionaires, one-man digital empires, waves of startups and even the establishment of new industries. With the world moving at such an exponential phase, being decisive in taking actions will be critical for our thriving
But with so many things vying for our attention and sparking our curiosities, even making a decision itself has become harder for us. We’re immobilized by the pull of too many things at the same time.
In order to withstand all the external pull around us and excel in mastering our focus, we will have to practice the invaluable skill of decisiveness.
Developing the Skill
Just like any other skills, we could only make progress by deliberate practice. With this, we could only do it by exposing ourselves to instances where we will be forced to take decisive actions.
It might be daunting at first, but we can always start small. For me, doing the grocery is such an exercise in building my decisiveness. Since I cook a lot at home and buy a lot of fresh produce in-season, seeing too many new products could be overwhelming. Setting a time limit to do my grocery compels me to be quick in deciding which items to buy.
Another great opportunity that I utilize to practice my decisiveness is setting a target to choose 10 Medium articles that I read before going to bed. Again, since my schedule for reading is limited, I feel compelled to quickly decide on which articles to read for the night.
Yours might be different so pay attention to the things that’s taking you more time to decide. Then evaluate for yourself if you can actually apply this mental practice for decision-making.
Although intending to spend your time as efficient as possible won’t always be enough, a small daily practice of quick decisiveness will give us more time to focus on the more important decisions we have to make.
The Rule for Major Decisions
Since deciding on bigger things will require more time and a more analytical approach, one rule that I follow whenever I need to make a ‘biggie’ is by asking myself a question.
“Will this decision affect my life in the next 5 years?”
If the answer is Yes, then I ask some close friends on what their take on the matter is. Reconsider. Then decide.
If the answer is No, then I just make the decision even if there is a chance that I’d fall flat on my face. I’ll never know anyway until I give it a go.
The cost of not deciding and acting on the decision is far greater than the worst possible outcome of the decision anyway since we will never know.
Conclusion
For writers, I think the best practice that could demonstrate this is during our writing. Only after we’ve typed our thoughts down (a decision by itself) could we notice the mistakes and recognize better ways of laying out our words. Our ultimate guide is if we are able to convey our ideas as smooth as possible to our readers.
Our decisions’ outcome acts as indicator of either a positive or a negative path to take. The catch of the game is that we must place our bets first. We have to decide first. Make mistakes. Discover the wrong ways so we can stumble upon the many right ones.
Our skill in decisiveness becomes our greatest asset to complement our focus since by process of quick elimination (of the wrong choices) we get more time to spend on the things that will actually matter.
So keep deciding over and over again until you discover the right one, then focus on that.
