I think that waiters in restaurants are some of the most patient people around. I've often been in a restaurant and seen waiters hover around a table with a pad waiting to write down the decisions of what dinner or lunch is going to be. It always seems to be an interminable time. I must confess that I have been party to that as well. It seems like very few people are decisive in a restaurant. There's always a humming and hawing about what to have, whether to have the chicken or the shrimp – decision-making at a restaurant seems to be an interminable thing. That's why I have a high regard for waiters who try to act like they are really interested. And finally the question is thrown to them: "So, what do you think we should have?" They would then lay out all the choices for you and finally a decision is made which has nothing to do with what they said. All this has taken a while.
Indecision is something that plagues us every now and then. We don't necessarily have to be indecisive people or people who find it difficult to make a decision all the time. It can be that indecisiveness creeps up on us and we suddenly wonder why we are unable to make a decision. We realize that in a sense, we are circling overhead, threatening to land, but never really getting there. What is it that causes us to be indecisive at moments? It's not really a good state to be in, isn't it?
William James said, "There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision." We don't like being indecisive. That, in itself, creates more stress and tension. But, how do we overcome it? How do we look at what's going on in our lives and say, "I have a sense that every now and then, I fall into this trap of being indecisive." As somebody said, "Being indecisive is decisive itself." Having indecision is, by itself, a decision. And it's a wrong decision.
So how do we handle indecision in our lives? I like a couple of things that I read from different authors, and one of them, Punit Shah says, "Acknowledge the outcome of indecision. What will happen if you don't take a decision? Go down the list of what would happen and see whether those options are acceptable to you or not. Invariably you will find a reason why you've got to take a decision, and to take it immediately. So, acknowledge the outcome of indecision and take the decision."
Secondly, Julia Cameron, in 'The Artist's Way' says, "Write 750 words." The premise (or logic/rationale) behind that indecisiveness comes from a cluttered mind. The way to unclutter a mind is to take a pen and paper and just keep writing everything that's on your mind. By the end of 750 words, you've got everything out. Then your mind is better able to take a decision.
Or as Mattan Griffel says, "Use the Colin Powell strategy, the 40-70 rule." Have enough information which would be more than 40% and less than 70%. Less than 40%, to take a decision would be like shooting from the hip, and over 70%, somebody else has already taken the decision for you. So within that 40-70%, if you've got the information, then go ahead and take the decision.
Take non-critical decisions off the grid. There are so many decisions that we make that we really don't need to make, but will sap our energy, mar the decision-making process or fatigue them. For example: a question posed to you every day – "What would you like for breakfast?" Or during office hours, somebody brings you a menu and asks – "What would you like for lunch?" You agonize over it in the middle of the work that you are doing, and you think that you've got to take a decision. And you are immobilized by it. These are things that you really don't need to do. You can easily, at the beginning of the week, take a menu and tick off your options for breakfast/lunch for the next 5 days. Make the decision, get it over with. These are non-critical decisions that you need to take off the grid.
What you really need to do is to avoid decision fatigue. This is something that researchers have found is coming to the fore more and more. We have only a limited number of decisions that we can make in a day, as John Tierney says, and after that, the mind just begins to close up on us. So the key is to be able to say, "What's the decision that I don't need to make?" and take a decision on them, so that you are able to take key decisions when they come to you.
John Tierney goes on to document some research that was done of how convicts who are brought before parole board and the judge is listening to them. The chances are that people who come in the morning, 8:30 or 9:30, have a better chance of getting paroled than those who's cases come up at 3:30 or 4:30 in the afternoon. By then, the judge is tired, and he wants to just get rid of the case and the chances of him letting a criminal out are less because he then just wants to play safe. So be very careful of decision fatigue and what it can do for you.
But, however you look at it today, I think the main question for us is: How am I faring in this whole area of decision-making? Do I find myself increasingly coming to a point where I'm really not taking decisions? I'm just sliding by, going with the flow, letting default decisions be made. Whether you've noticed it and whether it's time to put a stop to it. Maybe today is a good day for you to look at your own life and say: Am I being decisive or am I letting things slide? Or maybe you've reached decision fatigue and your life is full of inconsequential things that you're deciding on, non-critical decisions that need to be taken off the grid. However, you look at your life today, a decision needs to be made, one that is going to be critical, extremely important for your life and your work. My prayer for each one of us today is that we would be able to be decisive about our own decision making today.
May I pray with you? Almighty God, You know the decisions that we need to make and You have the wisdom to give us answers. So we lean not on our own understanding, but on Yours. We ask that You would help us, each one of us reading this post. Give to us the wisdom that we need to be able to decide what needs to be done, to take the stuff that doesn't need to be on our table, off the table. Give us all wisdom to be able to move through life making good decisions and not being indecisive. We ask this in Jesus' precious name. Amen.
• Young Entrepreneur Council, "10 Proven Ways to Overcome Indecision," http://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/10-proven-ways-to-overcome-indecision-fast.html. accessed 14 June 2016.
• John Tierney, "Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?" http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?_r=0
• William James quote: http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/indecision/
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