A Wrong Decision Is Better Than Indecision
"Indecision and delays are the parents of failure". George Canning surely must have known a thing or two about decision making when he made that statement. I'd go a step further and say that even a wrong decision is better than indecision.
Let's analyse that statement. Assume you are in a position of charge. When you're in a position of charge, you are solely responsible for the success or failure of that decision. Basically, you have to make a decision to give your life a direction. At this point, you can do two things -
- You can either make a decision with conviction and fearlessness or
- You can stay indecisive and wait for circumstances/other people to do the decision making for you.
Because these people know that action cures fear. They firmly believe that making 10 wrong decisions is basically eliminating 10 ways that don't work for them. This way they are far ahead of people who haven't even made a decision fearing what if they went wrong.
The latter approach makes you fearful and dependent. Because you delay making a decision and wait for external factors to do it for you, you constantly second guess yourself and let other people's opinion of you take centre stage as your gut instinct takes a backseat. As a result, you blame your failures arising from those decisions generally on "life", "people" or "bad luck".
You escape from taking responsibility and lack a sense of leadership. Hence, you are never in control of your life and have a pessimistic attitude in general which breeds failure. You are stuck in an indecisive stagnant state and are not evolving or progressing in life.
WHY DO WE FEAR MAKING WRONG DECISIONS?
As human beings, we are wary of failure. Afterall who wants to make mistakes or fail in life? We associate pain and sadness with wrong decisions. Therefore, there is this constant urge to be on the safe side, to avoid making decisions and to gather as much data and facts that'll ensure you make the right decision.
So we keep researching, analysing and consulting people in a bid to be certain about a particular decision. We feel that all these precautions will help us avoid pain and failure. Our brain tricks us into this psychological fear and illusion that a wrong decision will hurt us and that it's better to wait until the "perfect time" to make the right decision.
But this indecision is even more detrimental to our health than making the wrong decision. The amount of time wasted and stress endured to avoid making the wrong decision is the same as the amount of time wasted and stress endured on making the wrong decision.
There is no such thing as the "perfect time" to get it right. The perfect time is always now. You'll never succeed if you don't start. Take your chance. Make a decision and then see where it takes you.
A decision, even if wrong, takes you forward in life. It helps you to learn from your mistake, absorb the lesson and evolve into a more experienced and better version of yourself. As a wise man once said - "There's no better teacher than failure".
GETTING RID OF INDECISION IN OUR DAILY LIFE
Indecision is not something that we have reserved just for important events in life. Inability to make a decision has crept into our daily life as well. A prime example of it is deciding what to eat for dinner. You'll agree with me that deciding on the kind of food you want to eat takes more time & effort than actually going to the place and eating the food.
Firstly, you have to choose what to eat from the 5 options that are available at home. Secondly, there are 50 other restaurants and cafes offering various cuisines in case you choose to go outside and eat. Furthermore, there are atleast 50 options to choose from, in the food menu of each restaurant.
Now if you sit down to carefully analyse each option to objectively decide the best one for you, then you'll probably end up staying hungry until breakfast the next morning.
The trick is to just order the first food option that comes to your mind. Once you've made the decision, your mind is focussed on the food you've ordered and your body craves that food as well. As a result, all other options are eliminated automatically from your psyche and you are not engulfed by the fear of missing out on better food options.
Because no matter what you order, you'll always miss out on something else unless you have the appetite of a dinosaur and wealth of a millionaire. Fear Of Missing Out also called FOMO in millennial lingo is another reason why we avoid making decisions.
So instead of spending your valuable time and energy - analysing and getting emotionally drained, make a decision and stick to it. You'll be surprised how this helps you build your decision-making instinct and saves your time.
DECISION MAKING CAN BE A GAME CHANGER
When you make a decision, you give yourself an opportunity to succeed. You give your idea a chance to materialise. Which is why if you're given an amazing opportunity but you're not sure whether to take it or leave it, I'd say take it. What's the worse that could happen? You'd make a mess of it. Right?
Now, imagine what if you learned along the way, got better at it, worked on your flaws and used the experience gained from the opportunity as a stepping stone to bigger things. You'd be in a commanding position in life only because you had the courage to make the decision.
Take Richard Branson and his "Virgin Atlantic airline" venture for example. Virgin was originally a part of the music industry as Virgin Records and Richard had no idea how to run an aviation business. People around had predicted failure and bankruptcy for the airline, calling his decision to venture into aviation business as "self-destructive and hasty".
However, look where he is today. He owns more than 400 companies and was granted "Knighthood" at the Buckingham Palace for his services to entrepreneurship. He made mistakes, learnt along the way, devised new methods of operation and ultimately succeeded in making Virgin Atlantic airline a huge success. Therefore, decision-making turned out to be a game changer for Richard Branson.
I can give you another example of how decision making can be a game changer if you feel the previous one is too fantastical and far-fetched. 3 years back, I took the decision to move to Dubai to perform in a Broadway-style Bollywood musical as the male lead actor.
The monotony of performing the same musical show day in and day out resulted in me taking a break and going on my first solo trip to Spain. I was bitten by the wanderlust bug and that led me to travel all across the world. I decided to document my travels and eventually became a travel-blogger, establishing my travel blog "The Wandering Vegetable", with the aim of exploring every country on this planet!
CONCLUSION - EVEN A WRONG DECISION IS BETTER THAN INDECISION
Decision making can be hard. You don't know if the decision will turn out to be right or wrong. You can feel overwhelmed and alone in the unpredictability of it all. But you'd rather decide, make things happen, go wrong, learn from the process and progress in life than sit on the sidelines, lean on the shoulder of security and see opportunities go by as others grab them.
Decisions are what shape our lives. They make us who we are and provide us with the best education in life on par with any university in the world. So go ahead and take that decision because to decide is to move ahead in life and even a wrong decision is better than indecision.
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