16. The Law of Decision

Under the Laws of Success

Every great leap forward in life is preceded by a clear decision and a commitment to action.

All high-achieving men and women are decisive in their thinking and in their actions. They think things through carefully in advance. They decide exactly what they want, and then they make definite decisions. They then take specific actions to turn those decisions into realities.

In your life, you have had experiences where you have been unsure of what to do. You have gone back and forth and felt more and more uncomfortable and distracted. You finally resolved your dilemma by making a clear decision, one way or another. In looking back, you will probably find that that decision was the turning point for you in that situation, or perhaps even in your life. Everything else flowed from your decision.

The ability to make good decisions is one of the most important skills of the successful person. In studies where the careers of managers who were promoted rapidly were compared to those of managers who were passed over for promotion, researchers found that the one distinguishing behavior of the more rapidly promoted managers is that they were more decisive in everything they did.

The interesting discovery that came out of these studies was that when both groups of managers were given written tests with hypothetical problems, both sets of managers were equally accurate in their written decisions. On the actual job, however, the more successful managers were willing to actually make the decisions and take action while the unsuccessful managers were afraid to decide for fear of making a mistake.

Developing the habit of decisiveness can be the critical factor that enables you to take command of a situation and puts you onto the fast track in your career.

I have spoken to countless men and women whose lives had changed for the better at a certain point. In almost every case, they told me that the change came when they finally decided to "get serious." They finally decided to quit sitting on the fence. They decided to make a specific decision of some kind and then throw their whole hearts into a particular course of action.

High achievers are not necessarily those who make the right decisions, but they are those people who make their decisions right. They accept feedback and self-correct. They take in new information and they change if necessary. But they are always decisive, always moving forward, never wishy-washy or vacillating in their attitudes and their approaches to life.

The first corollary of the Law of Decision is simply this:
Act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid.

When you confront a situation boldly and step forward courageously, a series of unseen forces, most of which are explained by the laws in this book, seem to emerge to help you achieve your goals. Your willingness to take action rather than to delay or procrastinate seems to bring universal powers to your assistance.

The next corollary comes from the wonderful 1935 book by Dorothea Brande entitled Wake Up and Live. She writes about the discovery that changed her life and the lives of thousands of others who heard it from her in her public talks.

The second corollary of the Law of Decision is the simple success formula
Act as if it were impossible to fail, and it shall be.

This is one of the most powerful of all success principles. When you imagine that your success will be guaranteed if you will simply take action, and you act on that premise, a whole series of forces begins to support you and move you toward the attainment of your desires. When you are in doubt for any reason, act as if it were impossible to fail, and push forward.

The third corollary of the Law of Decision comes from the famous Nike commercial that says
"Just do it!"

These three words really summarize one of the great formulas for success. "Just do it!" Set your goals, make your plans, organize your priorities, imagine it is impossible to fail, and then, just do it!

How you can apply this law immediately:

1. Define the areas of your life and work where you need to make some clear, unequivocal decisions. Decide to "fish or cut bait!" Get in or get out. Remember that any decision is usually better than no decision at all.

As William Shakespeare said in Hamlet, "Take arms against a sea of troubles, and in so doing, end them."

2. Be decisive. Go for it! Take a chance! Act boldly, and unseen forces will come to your aid. And do it now.


Source: Brian Tracy, The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc, (San Francisco, 2000).