Eternally Indecisive People

“I do what I do because that’s what I have to do”. Perhaps you have heard this phrase several times, a phrase that represents one of the most powerful reasons, duty, which the human being must always take into account before acting. A powerful reason to get to work with respect to permanent indecision, which can arise from the seeds of lack of motivation and disinterest.

The pacifist leader Indira Gandhi once said that ” one cannot be a prisoner of indecision, because in this way all doors remain open”. A phrase that alludes to a thesis verified by psychology: the increase in the number of options increases indecision; indecision which, in turn, can lead us on the wrong path. You think that not acting, in the long term, is not good, and below we will explain why.

Reality is full of decisions

One day you finished your studies or had children, got married or decided not to share your life with your partner anymore. Perhaps you have chosen a job or a friend … All decisions that in one way or another have affected who you are now and your reality. If you don’t believe it, think about what your life would be like now if you hadn’t made all these decisions; think about what your life would be like if all those transcendental actions had been taken by another person in your place.

Well, we want to offer you another idea. What if, after making a decision, your mind turns into a pressure cooker boiling all the decisions you could have made? Let’s take the example of a young man who chose to study psychology: how would he feel if, after making that decision, he would focus all his attention on critical thoughts, such as that he should have opted for a more practical branch, which “churns out Less unemployed or guaranteeing a higher salary?

What happens if we live in perennial indecision?

To answer the questions listed above, it is good to turn to Anthony Robbins’ theory. The famous speaker and coach put it in plain English: “the lack of clarity, more than anything else, is the main cause of people’s failure”. When Robbins talks about failure, he is referring to the fact that, if we don’t make decisions, we will fail in everything, be it friendship, a couple’s life, a project, a dream …

For this reason, Robbinson asks himself a question: “what does our inability to make decisions entail?” To this question he finds two interesting answers. We propose them below:

The fear of being criticized

One of the coach’s responses is that we live eternally indecisive because we are afraid of criticism.  As social beings, we very often think that doing one thing rather than another will not please others.

At this point, we must think that 7000 million people live in the world, each unique and with their own personal opinion. Obviously what you do will not please many people, but many others will like it. So what others think should never be a cause for indecision. In fact, the Mexican millionaire Carlos Slim expresses this concept with a lapidary sentence: “when you live for the opinions of others, you are dead”.

Fear of failure

Another important reason, according to Robbins, is the constant fear of failure. So, it  would be the anticipation of failure that prevents people from taking action.

But what is bankruptcy? The opposite of success? Actually no. We must learn to live with failure, because in our lifetime we will be wrong and fail many times. However, we will learn important lessons that will help us try again with more desire and knowledge.

For Robbins, the real failure is not trying. You fail when you don’t learn and get up. The real mistake consists in not persevering, in not learning, in not taking care of the details, in not seeing human errors when planning something, in not giving it all.

For this, Robbins concludes that permanent indecision is a grave mistake. Immobility causes mediocrity, fear and unhappiness. Sometimes we will triumph, other times not. But the fact that a relationship or a job goes wrong does not imply that it will always be like this: the past affects the future, but it does not determine it. So let go of excuses, make decisions and move everything in your favor to enjoy the journey destined for you.