Are you ready for the best advice I ever got to simplify, focus, and move my life forward in the quickest and most effective way? I am hearing a big ‘YES’. We live in a world that is busy, noisy, and distracting. So many options, so many opinions, and so many things that can keep us stuck in a place of confusion and overwhelm. When I was weighing up my options, wondering the best path, negotiating all the choices available to me, the best advice I ever got was to make the decision once.
Let me give you a little of my African animal knowledge as it will help illustrate my point. The big cats are hunting machines and rely on their ability to focus and remove distractions to catch prey and survive. No amount of speed, agility, and strength can help them if they don’t make a decision just once. What do I mean? You may believe that a big cat approaching a herd of hundreds of deer has a smorgasbord of options, and it does. However, it could miss out altogether without one clear decision. Once the deer are aware there is danger, they will all start running and moving in different directions. They do this to confuse the hunter.
If the big cat doesn’t decide on just one deer, it will be distracted by all of the movement and may miss out altogether. So, it must fix its eyes and attention on just one deer and decide, just once, it is the target. If it picks one, and then sees another one closer and changes target, it will miss out. When it focuses and decides on just one, it is no longer distracted by all the other movement and will, in most cases, catch its prey. All it had to do is make the decision once.
So, how does this apply to us? I don’t know about you, but I have spent too much of my life double-minded and second-guessing myself and my choices. The moment I decided, just once, that I would commit to a course of action, not only did it simplify my life, remove the noise, but things started changing for the better. Until we make that decision, life will always be complicated, and we will stay stuck.
Have you ever wanted to start a fitness regime and thought that getting out of bed and going for a walk or run each morning would help? If you haven’t committed to that decision just once, you will wake up each morning trying to decide whether you will get up or not. In most cases, if like most people, you will hit ‘snooze’ and roll over and go back to sleep. If you are anything like me, I rarely feel like getting up in the morning to exercise, but I do it anyway. Why? Because I decided just once that I would do it every day. I infrequently feel like reading before bed, making calls for prospective business, or writing each day. Yet, I do these things every day. Because I made the decision just once that I would.
It is so freeing not to have to negotiate and decide each time if I am going to do these things or not. Making the decision once on a course of behaviour has led me to amazing routines and wonderful blessings in my life and will do the same for you if you decide just once. So, what is it for you? Is it exercise? Is it eating breakfast? Is it listening to an audio a day? Is it scheduled time with your children? Is it meeting a new person each day? Is it complimenting 5 people per day? Is it writing for 10 mins per day? Is it meditating each day? What is it you can decide just once that you will do every day. Pick one thing, decide once, and watch how your life seems easier and gets better.
In my podcast this week called Embody your potential, I speak with Emily Chidiac. After a childhood of abuse, trauma and self-loathing, Emily finally made the decision, just once, that she was worthy and would embody the potential she believed she had inside her. The moment she decided, things changed for her in a big way. Her story is powerful and inspiring.
Life is challenging and confusing enough without us making it harder for ourselves. When it comes to things that are most important and will have the greatest impact on the person you are and the life you will live, make the decision just once to do what you know you need to do. Then enjoy the amazing things that appear in your life.