Indecision Is the Thief of Opportunity

“We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run down.” — Aneurin Bevan

Indecision is the worst kind of failure. It is one you never learn from.

Indecision maintains the status quo. It maintains your current course. Whether driven by fear, uncertainty or doubt, the result is the same: stagnation.

Unfortunately for you, none of the consequences are good.

1. Indecision is inaction. Life moves on while you stand still. Failure to act means you will never be anything more than you are today. You “will go back and forth and never be.” [Dorothea Lasky] You will decay like the orbit of an old satellite.

2. Your life will become ever more cluttered and messy with each unmade decision. “A decision unmade is still a decision. It won’t go away.” [Emily Grabatin] Neither will the problems necessitating it. The weight of each unmade decision multiplies drag, a force directly opposed to your advancement in life.

3. Constant fear and worry over unmade decisions will drain the color from your life. “Indecisiveness wears a person out.” [E. L. Konigsburg] Must you revisit the same decisions over and over again in some twisted version of the movie “Groundhog Day?”

4. A timely decision takes advantage of opportunity. Wait too long and opportunity evaporates. “More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity. It will steal you blind.” [Marcus Tullius Cicero]

5. Wait long enough, and someone will make the decision for you. It will be made on their terms and to their benefit. A clean cut for them becomes a sloppy, jagged edge for you. Your failure to act allows someone else to seize the advantage.

Make every decision to the best of your ability in a timely manner. Don’t make a victim of yourself. Don’t let opportunity slip through your fingers.

Make a clean cut and learn, regardless of the outcome.