This week’s virtue is Decisiveness.
The depiction is:
- The quality of ending doubt, controversy, or the like; conclusiveness.
- The state of being marked by decision or prompt determination: as, decisiveness of character.
- The state or quality of being decisive.
There are many questions or options when it comes to decisiveness- Do I do this or that?, what do I want from these choices?. how will my decision affect myself?, how will my decision affect others?, I have a hard time making decisions, I want to make the right decision, and the list goes on…
As a child and while growing up into adulthood, I always had a hard time being decisiveness and making decisions due to some of the questions as above. I would often worry that what if my choice was what everyone wanted or what if it wasn’t the right one. I would prefer to have someone else make the choice and I would go along with it. I was OK with that and followed along. I was pretty easy and flexible. To a degree, I still am, however, over the past 5 – 10 years, I’ve come more into a leader position, able to make my own decisions, and not too worried about what others thought or wanted- if I am posed with a decision, everything is game within those limits. Even better, making a decision has become easier over the months, wanting both or more than one option. I call that the “Yes, I’ll have my cake AND eat it too.”
This week, paying attention and intentional to myself being decisive, do I get up and go to work in the mornings? They were all yesses. What time do I leave for work? That depended on where I was driving to that day. I took into account the mileage, weather conditions, traffic, and approximate travel time my GPS estimated. Going to these stores, over the years, I’d know the approximate ETA. I also made the decisions on what to shop for and what to make for dinner, what work do I what to get done when I got home from work in regards to my business, I decided to continue blogging on the week’s virtues, on who do I approach at network meetings and chat with, that I attend(ed) certain events, and making an investment in a certain program that I was attracted to. In reality, every moment of the day, we are making decisions and being decisiveness throughout the day. Even not making a decision is making a decision- not so much decisive, though.
What makes the difference in remembering situations or outstanding to make a decision or to be decisive is when others ask of your opinion or how it will affect yourself or others. Some people are sure of themselves and the predicted outcome and are quick in their decisiveness, some take their time and want to think it out, weighing the pros and cons, and then there are those who just don’t want to be decisive and will follow others’ decisiveness- that sounds familiar, eh? I’m glad that I’m not that guy anymore.
What circumstances can you think of over this past week that you had to be or were asked to be decisive? Where did you find yourself on the decisiveness scale- being the follower or the leader or somewhere in between? What were the outcomes of your decisiveness or lack of being decisive?
I’m being decisive and ending this post with these questions and looking forward to the coming week’s virtue.