(Guest Post by Deepak Nair*)
I used to be indecisive.. But now, I am not quite sure…
Back in school, I was taught about corporate strategies- Upsize, downsize or do nothing. Doing nothing, my learned teacher told me, is also an action. It reflects that by ignoring imminent adversities or opportunities, you have left things to chance and chosen to swim with the tide. Indecisiveness is a state of “not being able to make decisions quickly and effectively”. An indecisive person is a hung human, with inability to choose from available options.
Indecisiveness is something we come across everyday with millennials. We find it hard to make decisions at something as simple as choosing food to what hobby to pursue. Everyone seems to be bombarded with options, finding it difficult to choose any one of the them and in fact, feeling sad about rejecting at all. Not only does this cause significant delay in execution, indecisiveness causes major cost overruns at several organizations owing to the opportunity cost of the decision awaiting finalization.
Is this basically laziness or do we just lack of motivation? There seems to be a certain pattern leading to indecisiveness mostly in the following order:
- Fear of Taking Responsibility.
- Having Countless Choices.
- The Call for Perfection.
- Being a People Pleaser.
- The Analysis-Paralysis Issue.
The phenomenon is plaguing our generation. Indecisiveness is certainly a bad position to be in. This is because a wrong decision at least keeps you moving. You tend to learn something out of a wrong decision and over time, this practice alone leads to better decision making skill. Decision making is an art, but like will power, it is also a muscle that tends to get stronger with sufficient practice.
Hence, always make decisions. You get to learn so much more and in the process you face your fears and emerge out as a rational thinker. Would you like to stop being indecisive? Do the following with every decision you get to make:
- Tune Into Your Emotions. As an indecisive person, one of the first things you need to do is stop over-analyzing everything.
- Learn To Trust Yourself. Pushing past a life of indecisiveness isn’t just about trusting your emotions.
- Visualize Possible Outcomes. Better still, think on a paper
- Take Your Time and make progress
- Take Action.
References
(*Content and Ideas: Deepak Nair. Deepak is a Chartered Accountant. In his free time, he enjoys playing basketball and reading biographies. He has keen interest in reading about personal effectiveness and minimalism. You can reach him at deepaknair@live.in.)