Are You Really Making Decisions?

There is a massive difference between hoping and wishing for success, happiness, self improvement, or that something will change in our lives, and actively deciding to make changes to our lives.

New Year resolutions often fall into the wishing and hoping category. If we say 'I'd like to give up smoking' or 'I need to lose weight' or 'I really should get fit' or 'I should get a better job' our chances of success aren't great. Why not? The wording alone makes these more like a wish list of things that we think will make us happier if they happened. This is a bit like saying "I'd like to win the lottery" and the very lack of conviction of these 'wishes' makes their chances of success little better than the
likelihood of winning the lottery.

These are not decisions. Decisions are when we say to ourselves 'I am going to do whatever I have to do to lose 30 pounds in the next six months' or 'I am not prepared to put up with my lousy job any longer'. We need to decide that 'enough is enough' and be absolutely serious that this is what we want. We need to be prepared to get any information and help we need, form a plan and be prepared to take massive and consistent action. We need to be 100% committed to our decisions and be prepared to follow through whatever it takes.

Wherever we are in our lives now, it is due to the decisions we've made in the past. It can also be due to the lack of decisions we've made. Many people drift through life with no real purpose or plans and never really make many, if any serious decisions. Many people even actively avoid making decisions. The same people are often not happy with the way their lives have turned out and don't seem to realise that they have the power to make more of their lives. We all do - if we decide to. It nobody's choice but our own.

If we want to make positive changes to our lives and have greater success and happiness, there are many self improvement books, audio programs, seminars and coaching programs available that can help enormously. Whatever you want to achieve, you don't have to start completely from scratch or reinvent the wheel. You can be sure that someone else has done similar to what you want to achieve and that you can learn from their experiences.

However, the first step to making any change is making a decision, whether it's to give up smoking or start that business you've been talking about for years. You can have access to the best personal development tools available, but without having made the necessary decisions, little will change. But when we make firm decisions and know exactly what we want, we will find the strength and resources, and almost automatically take the actions needed to succeed.

"Vacillating people seldom succeed. Successful men and women are very careful in reaching their decisions, and very persistent and determined in action thereafter." - L. G. Elliott

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