Indecisiveness and Resolution Can They Co-Exist?
Posted on April 06, 2015 by Tricia Ryan, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.
The need to define objectives and an action plan are critical to business success.
Where you are today is based on decisions you made in the past. You will be tomorrow, based on decisions you make today. Take time and wisdom to make them good ones. LeAnn Thieman
The word resolve can be a verb when you decide firmly on a course of action and it can also be a noun when you have a firm determination to do something.
The need to define objectives and an action plan are critical to business success, yet so many of us prefer to stay neutral and not take a stand to avoid making a decision. Why do we do this?
According to LeAnn Thieman an author and speaker, there are some common mistakes people make which may lead to poor decision making that subsequently results in indecisiveness and inability to resolve a firm course of action.
They can include:
Not taking enough time, making decisions under duress
Lacking peace and solitude and making decisions in a chaotic situation
Wallowing in the chaos of everyday life
Not considering priorities
Failing to heed advice and what is best for you
Not aligning with your values
Ignoring what’s right for today and focusing on tomorrow
Avoiding the truth
Forgetting how to say “no”
Procrastinating – resulting in “No decision is a decision.”
Understanding the decision making process actually lead Jeff Larson, a psychology professor at Texas Tech, to probe the value of ambivalence, or lack of it and how it can help in making better decisions. The study notes some very positive attributes of ambivalence. It suggests that people who can live with ambivalence are more comfortable with uncertainty. They may also be viewed as more mature with an appreciation of multiple points of view. On the down side, they can also be seen as people that:
Procrastinate or avoid making decisions for as long as possible,
Feel more regret after making decisions,
Stay longer in unhappy relationships.
Both basic personality traits and culture can have a strong influence on decision making and our comfort with ambivalence. Gregory Ciotti in his blog posts suggests that as humans we have a funny way of formulating situational explanations when rationalizing things that happen to us, but view the same experience happening to someone else as personality based.
Some of the reasons for this approach to viewing a situation can be attributed to:
- We tend, in our minds, to see things happening to others as having a reason behind them. For ourselves, we don’t rationalize a reason, but simply feel more like a victim.
- We also tend to look for justification for situations – “people must deserve it” rather than looking at all the circumstances.
The theory behind this somewhat limited thinking is called Fundamental Attribution Error. It is perhaps a key factor in supporting our inability to make a decision, as we focus on other’s experiences to support our indecision. Needless to say, it is wise to take action with decisions, try to remove ourselves from other’s stories and concentrate on the decision at hand. Making decisions about our careers, families and our lives is not always easy. Having a process for making a positive change and having resolve — deciding firmly on a course of action in alignment with values — can help in making decisions that support a positive tomorrow.
To understand and obtain the resources you need to maximize your success, consider the FocalPoint Business Coaching Model. It will deliver progressive action by taking a proactive “one step at a time approach”, unique to you, and build on your incremental success.
