Fill in the blank:
Nothing great was ever accomplished without ___________.
What answer came to your mind?
- Enthusiasm? (that’s what the original quote says)
- Effort?
- Perseverance?
- Courage?
- A plan?
- Faith?
- Obstacles?
All of those are great, but I have a very different answer:
Nothing great was ever accomplished without a decision.
Making a decision is what gets the process started.
And the strength of that decision is what keeps the progress going once the heat of the moment wears off.
And, that decision is what revives the process when tough obstacles arise.
Here’s the problem with all of us, including me – in today’s society:
We no longer truly make decisions.
It used to be that a man’s word was his honor. If he said he would do it, the decision was final, and nothing could get him to deviate from it.
This quotation was part of the honor code I signed every year at my undergraduate university:
“I have been asked what I mean by ‘word of honor.’ I will tell you. Place me behind prison walls–walls of stone ever so high, ever so thick, reaching ever so far into the ground–there is a possibility that in some way or another I may escape; but stand me on the floor and draw a chalk line around me and have me give my word of honor never to cross it. Can I get out of the circle? No. Never! I’d die first!” Karl G. Maeser
As I stated, I contend that we have become lax in this area. We no longer make decisions, we make “mushy-isions.”
We sign up for the gym, then never again darken the door of the building.
We set our alarm clock, determined to get up early and get a good start on the day, then hit the snooze button 3 times.
We resolve to lose weight, then grab an extra helping at dinner.
We buy a business training product, then never even break the shrink wrap or log into the site.
We find excuse after excuse why we can’t actually start the business we’ve been thinking about for years.
Those are mushy-isions. And we all make them.
Last night, I was talking to a friend about something she knows will help her that she’s been promising me she’s planning to do virtually every year for the past 15 years. It won’t be hard, but it will require change.
Me: “2014 is YOUR year to make this happen.”
Her reply: “I’ll try.”
That’s mushy-isioning in action. (Plus Yoda pops into my mind.)
I’m going to be blunt here.
If you want to change anything in your life, you must make a DECision, not a mushy-ision.
A decision that creates action.
A decision that creates a change in you.
A decision that makes you persevere through the tough times.
Again, nothing great was ever accomplished without a decision. I’ll argue that same argument applies to nothing semi-great or even sorta great too!
You know how to make and abide by decisions, I know it.
At some point in your life, you made a decision to learn to walk. It was hard, because it was a lot easier, less embarrassing and less painful to crawl, but that decision and what you did as a result created a powerful change in your life.
We’re born to make decisions – it’s innate within us. Mushy-isions are learned.
Where are you being mushy in your life?
What decisions are you going to make to fix those areas?
Decide to decide!
Just go DO this stuff!
(Note: I wrote this to myself. I thought it might be valuable to share it with you too!)
What do you think holds us back from making decisions? How can we stick to the decisions we make? Leave a comment below and don’t forget to +1, like, share, pin and tweet this post!