A decision reached must be implemented to have full effect; otherwise, no decision is reached at all. The implementation of a decision makes it worthwhile. What separates the boys from the men is the ability to implement decisions. We do not fear a dog that can bark but can’t bite. It is like a toothless bulldog. A man who decides but can’t perform that which he decides is a toothless bulldog. A decision is a bark, while an action is the bite. That’s what matters; it is what people respect.
A decision is the motivation for action. If you fail to act, your decision achieves nothing. That’s why most people fail. They have decided on what to do. They lack the courage to perform it. You know you love a lady, you have made a decision on that already. How would the lady know if you don’t approach her? If a lady wants to date a man who is not aware of such desire, the date won’t materialise. The lady burns with her own desire for nothing. She’s relieved of this burden if she shoves aside all constraints and by any decent means possible gets the message across to the guy. I know
it is the standard for the man to be the protagonist in this love game, but who says a lady can’t be the aggressor? To succeed, sometimes, you may have to do the unusual. You do what is not commonly done to achieve what’s not commonly achieved.
A decision could be likened to faith; while works is performance. The Bible teaches that for faith to be effective it must be backed by works. Faith without work, therefore, is like a decision that is not performed. What can produce results for you is faith with works; or decision with performance. I have belabored
this point so that it sinks into the minds of our youth. Many young people are stranded in the journey of life because they know exactly what they want but not how to get it.
If you know what you want, you have started on the journey, but you need to know how to get it, to complete the journey, or what you have on hand is an abandoned project, a mere pipe dream. You are reading this article now because when I conceived it in my mind, I went ahead to write it. It takes quite some effort. That’s where the issue lies. Do you make the effort to implement your ideas? It is inevitable that you will meet resistance along the way. Such obstacles prevent many from making it, but see yourself as a conqueror, ward off those roadblocks and achieve your goals.
What stands between your decisions and your action is an obstacle. Unless you confront these roadblocks, you can’t win any battle. You must learn to walk your talk. Let your action speak as loud as your words. Carefully go through the minefield of your heart and see all the great decisions you have reached but failed to perform for one reason or the other. A bold sailor braves the storms to sail the rough, high seas to his new-found land. Don’t let the fear of storms keep you off the path to your destiny.
Floods will always come. We build dykes and embankments to contain them. So also, when the crises of life come at you like floods, you launch your own countermeasures to contain them.
What keeps most people from acting is fear of failure. They decide quite all right, but they are unwilling to move from that point for fear of failure. There’s always the salient question that pounds your heart: What if I fail … what if it doesn’t work … what if, what if?
Well, if you fail, it means you are yet to succeed. So, you keep trying until you succeed. Failure simply means you are yet to succeed. Period! You have to test your decisions on the altar of action, otherwise you won’t know if they are good or not. There are people who can’t even make decisions at all. If you are in this category, be informed that you are a candidate for failure. It is far better to make a bad decision than not to make any decision at all. At least, it would be acknowledged that you took a decision and acted on it, even if it didn’t work.
You need to gather facts in order to make quality decisions. Once you have the facts at your disposal, go ahead and decide. Don’t stop there; perform that which you have decided. Execute all your projects. Make a go at them one after the other. Take a step at a time. I wrote this article, one word after the other, and then you are reading this piece word by word. That’s the way it goes. You do one thing at a time. That’s how you achieve success.
Check out this fact: Those who succeed are known to be action-oriented. It is the man or woman of action that performs or delivers the goods. Indecision is the twin brother of procrastination. I wrote about this sometime ago on this page.
Get out of your valley of indecision. Make hard decisions today about your life and act on time. That’s how to move to your peak and not rot away in your valley.
Weekend Spice:
“Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.” – Dale Carnegie
Okay, folks, let’s do it again next Friday. Stay motivated.
Ayodeji is an author, rights activist, pastor and life coach. He can be reached on 09059243004 (SMS and WhatsApp only)
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