The person who makes decisions quicker and more resolutely flies ahead of the person who is slow and weak in their ways. Notice that I didn’t point out that the first person was always making the “right” decisions. That point is irrelevant in the longer-term. Using simple probabilities, the person that makes more decisions in the face of pressure from others will have more options on the table, and having more options is always more advantageous than having less options. This is true because the person with more options has just as many as the one with the lesser amount, with the advantages that come with them, and also has others that can only add more in terms of value.

Preparation Is A Component Leading To Boldness

Now that this is shown to be the case, how can you become the person who makes decisions quickly and resolutely? The idea here is to see what slows you down, or stops you instantly, when decision-making time comes around. When you go to a store to buy apples, and then see the apples at the store, the decision to pick them up is nearly instant. On the other hand, if you see oranges you didn’t plan on buying, your decision of whether to buy them or not will be slower. The difference between the apples and oranges here is the preparation you made before going to the store in planning for what you would want to buy.

Preparation is a key factor in maintaining a bold persona. Lack of preparation, even if it wouldn’t actually affect your performance, weakens your decision-making ability because your mind assumes that you are missing something you would have gotten by preparing like an organized individual.

Don’t Let Others Expectations Weigh You Down

A huge part of becoming a bold decision-maker is understanding how to view others and their perceived expectations of you. If you are worried you are going to let certain people down by doing this or that, you already have a weight on your shoulders slowing down your decisions. You can’t make decisions boldly if you have to keep processing whether they will make person A or person B happy. Every second of delay when making a decision is a second you will be disappointed for losing later on.

Others Will Come And Go, But You Will Remain

This means that you have to make the choice to not let others affect your decision-making. The only guarantee you have is that you will still be communicating with yourself a few years later, which is more than can be said for the chances that you will be dealing with certain people who are currently in your life a few years down the road. You have to think about your future self, and he/she would want you to do more for yourself(which then passes on to others as well). Also, we often do things that we think pleases others, when in fact they look at us as weak for spending our time worrying about how we would be perceived.

Check To See If Others Are Really Helping You

One thing that is a definite deterrent to a bold mindset is the assumption that certain people that have helped you slightly have your best interests in mind. Government welfare is one of the best ways to reduce a person’s motivation to work, and in the same way, you may be currently chained to a person that you think is helping you, but that is blocking your bold decision-making anytime something of value is up for grabs. This is not helpful, and is keeping you from a state of progress.

Anyone who would actually want you to live propitiously would challenge you so that you would improve, and would support your own risk-taking and venture-making. If you have a person like this in your life, spending more time with them will help you maintain a bold mindset. Being around bold people will make you feel more foolish when you are not bold yourself, so you will adjust to an increased level of hardiness more quickly.

Take Note Of Your Own Weakening Factors

Although I would assume these to be the main issues keeping people from becoming definitive decision-makers, here is how you could find out what the other factors are that you should change to help the cause. The next few times you are making a decision, and become slowed down or cancel on making the decision, process what it is that slowed you down. It will probably be the case that the same concept or concepts come up repeatedly, and these should be the target of your energy and vitality; that same energy is not beneficial to use to attack yourself for procrastinating or backing down.

If you are not harsher(AKA more direct) with other people now, you will end up being even more vindictive toward them and yourself later on. The sooner you are resolute and definitive in your decision-making, the sooner you can build up a strong foundation that protects the integrity of your goals.

Photo by Schuey