“Act fast. Fail fast. Correct fast. Learn fast. Make bigger and more interesting mistakes. Life is an experiment”

–Tim Fargo

So here is the news: We are not God. We are human. And they say,

“To err is human, to forgive is Divine”

My understanding of that statement is that even God knows that we are human and we make mistakes. He knows how we are formed and He remembers that we are dust…and does not treat us as our sins deserve. Each week, we can use this statement: “To err is human, to forgive is divine” to forge ahead and get better.

I will tell you that [ictt-tweet-inline]one of the greatest downfalls of visionaries is vacillating over making decisions.[/ictt-tweet-inline] When we want to turn every angle of a thing, even when it looks immediately apparent that a decision should be made, the “Butterfly effect” of that delay can be devastating. At times we want to see the end of the staircase before we get started. That is not what Martin Luther King Jr told us. He said:

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

[ictt-tweet-inline]The one way that you can easily make your life better is through constant, instant, and fast decision making[/ictt-tweet-inline]. I recently attended a Leadership summit. The speaker gave us quite a bit of material to think about and to think through. Over lunch, a friend of mine talked of how he wanted to assimilate everything  that the speaker was teaching. I told him that he never needs to do that. I showed him my notebook where I wrote one decision that I had taken as a result of the presentation. That one decision once implemented is much more potent than cramming all the notes of the presenter.

“More than anything else, I believe it’s our decisions,not the conditions of our lives that determine our destiny.”

–Tony Robbins

Way to Go

So here is now you can improve your life: Each week, make a decision and get it done. I wrote about that here when I was talking about upping your personal brand. My friend who wanted to assimilate everything the speaker was saying could easily get the DVD and each week implement at least one thing. It is the law of the small things. It is the butterfly effect.

“Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile”

–Bertrand Russell 

Each day or minute you postpone making a decision or taking an action that you are supposed to, you are not just dying in installments, but you are also affecting the rest of the world with your indecision. If you are a CEO for example, a delay in making simple but crucial decisions affects families and have far reaching impact. The same applies if you are  a husband, a mother, a father, a president or any leader. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick”. Therefore learn to make decisions and deal with the consequences later.

“Get it right…get it fast…get it out…get it over with”

~ Warren Buffet

The Five Decisions

Here are the five decisions that you need to make on an occasional basis and act on them without vacillating. When you get the consequences of the decisions, you can alter your cause. But here is the thing, [ictt-tweet-inline]”the consequences of making a decision are far more productive than those of indecisiveness.”[/ictt-tweet-inline] In fact, indecisiveness is a silent killer. Keep away from it.

1. Reflect

The best decision you can make as a human being is to be reflective. A reflective soul has the ability of taking a second look at life after allowing things to simmer. A reflective mind also is stable, steady and organized. Taking time to reflect over things allows you the perfect opportunity to make gut feeling decisions that you might not regret. However, going on in life without reflection is a recipe for indecisiveness and later on, disaster.

2. Review

Reviewing is done on paper. This kills laziness. A good review includes a SWOT, PESTL and SMART analyses. This means that in our finite minds, we are able to turn a matter inside and outside and make sure that most of the angles pertaining it are covered. It is also important to mastermind about this, get another person’s view of it. Borrow as many brains as you can. Reviews give you the tools to make great decisions that others will consider you genius. Why? Because very few people (Including some busy CEOs) do not do this.

3. Resolve

Stop waiting. At the earliest opportunity with the information you have, seek to resolve a matter. Matters that are left hanging sap our financial and emotional capital. You need to be as free as possible to pursue all that you want to pursue without having something nagging you at the back of your mind. So make a decision to resolve immediately and get moving!

4. Release

You cannot save them all. You are not God and you cannot be Vice Jesus. Let people, projects, events and things that are no longer contributing to your productivity out of your life. Let them go. Of course it is not easy, but it certainly is worth it. I think the worst thing you can do is to accommodate things in life that weigh you down and sap your spirit dry. Learn to release, heal and move on. Now, I am not talking about marriage. Do not misquote me.

5. Reboot

Oh. Did you feel that. God is incredible. He knows the importance of rebooting and that is why He gives us daily a new day. Rebooting is having an opportunity to start over, albeit with better information. I think the worst we do to our lives is be on autopilot, moving along by copying and pasting events of yester-years without having any insight. Rebooting allows you to freshen up, get a new perspective, strength, purpose, zeal and zest that you need to be productive.

Bottom line: keep making decisions. My friend Samuel Bakutana tagged me today in a tweet photo that had the following message:

“Start now. Start where you are. Start with fear. Start with pain. Start with doubt. Start with hands shaking. Start with the voice trembling but start. Start and don’t stop. Start where you are, with what you have. Just…start”

Enough said here.