Why can't you just Make a Decision?

I have seen many young people's lives plateau because of one major disease: They just can not make Decisions!

Many people these days, young people especially, like to 'keep their options open'. This is especially true of smart, educated, young people. Perhaps their education and university degrees had taught them too much of the so-called 'option value' and how it's valuable to keep their options open.

All I can say is, yea sure, sometime it's worthwhile to keep your options open, but to advance in life, sooner or later you have to make the tough decisions in life. 

Consider this: 

- How many people are stuck in jobs they don't even like?

- How many people are stuck in relationships that deep down inside they know are not healthy for them?

- How many people can't even answer the question "what do I want to be when I grow up?" - even when they ARE already grown up!!?

One definition of 'maturity' and 'growing up' is in fact: the state where you have made 'commitments', which are key long-term decisions in life.  

I think this is also the disease of our modern society - with myriads of options defining our landscape of products and services to choose from. In some ways, I think modern people are conditioned to be easily bored. More options keep life spiced up.

I have observed that the great and successful leaders whom I have met make their decisions quickly, frequently and change them hardly. 

Conversely, I have observed many unsuccessful people struggle to make decisions...they deliberated for days, months and even years.... and once they 'start' to make one decision, they tend to change their minds frequently!!

Some of these people who can't make decisions often ask me, "What if I make the wrong decision?" I told them that  it's much better to make the wrong decision than no decision at all because: at least you can learn from it!

Some of the best decisions I have made in my life have resulted from experiences from making wrong decisions in my past. You must keep swinging the bat at the balls life keep throwing at you.

In business and work, I often used the terms 'staying power' and 'clocking your hours' to differentiate successful from unsuccessful businessmen or managers. The unsuccessful people in business and work tend to be dabblers, unable to focus on a destination for a sustained period of time. They don't clock the hours. They start working in an area, and a few months later, they got bored and travelled overseas. One or two years later, they came back and looked for some other work. And then they are still not satisfied... they moved again to other work, and then they do some more travels.... etc. They just can't make a decision to commit. Twenty years later, they are still figuring out what they want to be when they grow up!!

The great former Chairman and CEO of ITT, Harold Geneen, also talked a lot about 'clocking your hours'. Clock your hours of experience, he said, and the cash will come later. 


The writer Malcolm Gladwell is even more ruthless with his "10,000 hour" rule! (to master a certain skill).
Think about it: Can you commit yourself to a particular course of action for 10,000 hours straight - day in and day out?

I hope you don't fall into the trap of 'keeping your options open' too many times in your lives.