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g the consequences created a good deal of stress in my life. Once I decided to call customers immediately when I found out we would be late, life got much easier! All that stress I carried was for nothing, and guess what? The customers often thanked me for the heads up!</p><p id="101b"><b>We can often unload our burdens by making a decision at the moment and acting more quickly.</b></p><p id="7b27">As I studied decision making, I ran across something Napoleon Hill wrote in his book <i>Think and Grow Rich</i>.</p><blockquote id="3fea"><p>“People who fail to accumulate money, without exception, have the habit of reaching decisions, if at all, very slowly, and of changing these decisions quickly and often.” Napoleon Hill (1883–1970)</p></blockquote><p id="45a3">That quote tremendously increased my courage to make decisions. After all, who doesn’t want to accumulate more money?</p><p id="97a0">Not long after I read Hill’s book, I ran across something written by an amazing journalist far ahead of her time. She wrote:</p><blockquote id="b933"><p>“The percentage of mistakes in quick decisions is no greater than in long-drawn-out vacillations, and the effect of decisiveness itself makes things go and creates confidence.” Anne O’Hare McCormick (1880–1954)</p></blockquote><p id="a632">She hit the nail on the head as my confidence soared, and I became far more productive by improving the speed at which I made decisions.</p><h2 id="378c">The benefits of making decisions more quickly</h2><p id="01dd">There are many methods of enhancing your ability to make decisions more quickly.</p><p id="3149">Check out the following short articles for some great ideas:</p><ul><li><a href="https://readmedium.com/how-to-benefit-from-making-the-decision-now-389aabb22730?source=friends_link&sk=3a51218f6b17c813641dbb703f57f7c9">How to Benefit from Making the Decision Now!</a></li><li><a href="https://readmedium.com/how-to-better-understand-a-person-who-cant-seem-to-make-up-their-mind-742b7eb8ccdf?source=friends_link&sk=473a086975fb475938c8b439d39ba746">How to Better Understand a Person Who Can’t Seem to Make up Their Mind</a></li><li><a href="https://readmedium.com/the-encouragement-you-need-to-be-decisive-180ec4e84388?sk=879127f69d25ee7965b4c21900d7cde8">The Encouragement You Need to Be Decisive</a></li><li><a href="https://readmedium.com/how-to-make-the-best-decisions-for-your-life-cbde93b46068?source=friends_link&sk=98dc63c2877f70fee8061c1c50172f34">How to Make the Best Decisions for Your Life</a></li></ul><p id="26e1">The benefits of improving our skill of making decisions more quickly are many and can be life-changing. A few of these benefits include:</p><ul><li>Reducing stress by becoming less burdened with the weight of decisions</li><li>Elevated stature and respect by being seen and known as decisive</li><li>Moving on to the next thing, increasing your productivity by reducing the tension created by unmade decisions</li><li>Increased clarity and insight with fewer decisions hanging over you</li><li>Overcoming the fear of decision making by studying, practicing, and learning about decisions</li><li>Personal growth by learning how to deal with mistakes</li></ul><blockquote id="d91d"><p>“Your best teacher is your last mistake.” Ralph Nader (1934-present)</p></blockquote><p id="406d">That last item, learning from your mistakes, is crucial to y

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our growth. <b>Making mistakes is integral to learning. The more mistakes you make now, the fewer you make in the future!</b> Highly successful people have tamed the fear of making mistakes in their lives because they know they lead to growth and greater opportunities.</p><blockquote id="a5e1"><p>“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” George Bernard Shaw (1865–1950)</p></blockquote><h2 id="1811">Final thoughts</h2><p id="7b03">You are better at making quick decisions than you realize. Why not do a little experiment? Ask yourself, “What’s the worst that could happen?” and “What’s the best that could happen?”</p><p id="453a">Even if you have doubts, give it a try. Make the next decision quickly. With practice, you can overcome any fear you may have and begin to receive some of the wonderful benefits of making quicker decisions. If that’s not worth taking such a small risk, nothing is!</p><p id="16db">I leave you with a final quote to think about as you move forward. Test and find the truth in Gladwell’s words. You have a great deal to gain and extremely little to lose, so give it a try!</p><blockquote id="bcf8"><p>“Our unconscious is really good at quick decision-making — it often delivers a better answer than more deliberate and exhaustive ways of thinking.” Malcolm Gladwell (1963-present)</p></blockquote><p id="c8e3"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamabbate/">LinkedIn</a> |<a href="https://twitter.com/wabbate">Twitter</a>| <a href="https://medium.com/@BillAbbate">Medium</a>| <a href="http://billabbate.com/">UncommonSense</a>| <a href="http://www.amazon.com/author/billabbate">AmazonAuthorPage</a></p><p id="3e16"><a href="https://readmedium.com/d5b8d684dcbc?source=post_page-----834577ca2b4a----------------------">Bill Abbate</a> Leadership Writer and Editor in <a href="https://medium.com/illumination">ILLUMINATION</a></p><p id="8cfe">Thank you for reading this article! If you enjoyed it, I’m sure you will like the others below.</p><div id="1fa8" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/how-can-you-deal-effectively-with-difficult-people-in-your-life-e30e80907e89"> <div> <div> <h2>How Can You Deal Effectively With Difficult People in Your Life?</h2> <div><h3>Is it better than you change, or that they change in the relationship?</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*PN61vTPfxvoYf-lFsQmwMw.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="a3c4" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/how-to-clearly-see-the-different-types-of-friends-in-your-life-e0a4099d0c25"> <div> <div> <h2>How to Clearly See the Different Types of Friends in Your Life</h2> <div><h3>What effect do friends have on your life?</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*tHHi6yVAihFUX2JhPprMUw.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

Life | Personal Leadership

How to Gain the Benefits of Making Decisions More Quickly

Why don’t you make your mind up already!

Photo by **SHVETS production** from **Pexels**

Some of us are quick to make a decision, move on, and rarely look back. Others are slower, unable, or unwilling to make a quick decision.

For those of us who decide quickly, it can be frustrating waiting for someone to make a decision. For those who are slower, it can be upsetting when forced to decide quickly.

Let’s examine the more routine or common types of decisions we must regularly make. Those larger, potentially life-altering decisions are best left for another article.

Make a decision already!

Have you ever said to someone, “Make a decision already!” If so, you likely make decisions more quickly. Yet, the average person makes 35,000 conscious decisions each day, so in reality, everyone is a quick decision-maker in some respect!

The vast majority of those decisions are minor, while the decisions we tend to delay are typically more complex. Still, why do some of us make these more complex decisions so quickly while others get stuck?

Perhaps it is as simple as they fear making the wrong decision. I recall many years ago getting stuck when an important decision came across my desk. Much of my issue was fear-driven. I did not want others to think I was a poor decision-maker, and I certainly did not want to make a wrong decision.

Over time, I learned a better way to make decisions. The fear left, and I started climbing the ladder in the corporate world far more quickly. How did I make the change? By having a great mentor and studying decision-making while learning more about myself.

Making decisions more quickly

When I was younger, I had a great boss who asked me some simple questions that have stayed with me since. When he saw I was stuck on making a decision, he asked, “What’s the worst that could happen?” and “Can you live with it?” In the beginning, I used these questions a lot. As I would examine each question, the answer often came back “it’s not that big a deal and won’t matter much in the end.”

I later added one more question. I started asking myself, “What’s the best outcome that can happen?” This added further to my ability to move forward on a decision in a positive way.

For example, If we knew a delivery would be late for a customer, I’d stall and wait until the last minute to call them. That was a bad strategy as I carried the weight of knowing I would have to make the call at some point. My attempt to avoid and delay facing the consequences created a good deal of stress in my life. Once I decided to call customers immediately when I found out we would be late, life got much easier! All that stress I carried was for nothing, and guess what? The customers often thanked me for the heads up!

We can often unload our burdens by making a decision at the moment and acting more quickly.

As I studied decision making, I ran across something Napoleon Hill wrote in his book Think and Grow Rich.

“People who fail to accumulate money, without exception, have the habit of reaching decisions, if at all, very slowly, and of changing these decisions quickly and often.” Napoleon Hill (1883–1970)

That quote tremendously increased my courage to make decisions. After all, who doesn’t want to accumulate more money?

Not long after I read Hill’s book, I ran across something written by an amazing journalist far ahead of her time. She wrote:

“The percentage of mistakes in quick decisions is no greater than in long-drawn-out vacillations, and the effect of decisiveness itself makes things go and creates confidence.” Anne O’Hare McCormick (1880–1954)

She hit the nail on the head as my confidence soared, and I became far more productive by improving the speed at which I made decisions.

The benefits of making decisions more quickly

There are many methods of enhancing your ability to make decisions more quickly.

Check out the following short articles for some great ideas:

The benefits of improving our skill of making decisions more quickly are many and can be life-changing. A few of these benefits include:

Reducing stress by becoming less burdened with the weight of decisions
Elevated stature and respect by being seen and known as decisive
Moving on to the next thing, increasing your productivity by reducing the tension created by unmade decisions
Increased clarity and insight with fewer decisions hanging over you
Overcoming the fear of decision making by studying, practicing, and learning about decisions
Personal growth by learning how to deal with mistakes

“Your best teacher is your last mistake.” Ralph Nader (1934-present)

That last item, learning from your mistakes, is crucial to your growth. Making mistakes is integral to learning. The more mistakes you make now, the fewer you make in the future! Highly successful people have tamed the fear of making mistakes in their lives because they know they lead to growth and greater opportunities.

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” George Bernard Shaw (1865–1950)

Final thoughts

You are better at making quick decisions than you realize. Why not do a little experiment? Ask yourself, “What’s the worst that could happen?” and “What’s the best that could happen?”

Even if you have doubts, give it a try. Make the next decision quickly. With practice, you can overcome any fear you may have and begin to receive some of the wonderful benefits of making quicker decisions. If that’s not worth taking such a small risk, nothing is!

I leave you with a final quote to think about as you move forward. Test and find the truth in Gladwell’s words. You have a great deal to gain and extremely little to lose, so give it a try!

“Our unconscious is really good at quick decision-making — it often delivers a better answer than more deliberate and exhaustive ways of thinking.” Malcolm Gladwell (1963-present)

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Bill Abbate Leadership Writer and Editor in ILLUMINATION

Thank you for reading this article! If you enjoyed it, I’m sure you will like the others below.