33: Stop Waiting Start Doing

Did you listen or read last week’s episode with Sandra?  I hope you did.  This month there is a bit of a theme to the episodes.  Last week Sandra shared with us her investment strategies and how her main form of investments are in equities invested through the share market.  Next week I am thrilled to bring you Andrew Hallam author of the Millionaire Teacher.  He too, invests heavily in the stock market and shares his wisdom and expertise on the subject.   And of course, if you are reading this in current time, you will know that we are reading Andrew’s book this month in book club.

If you have only just discovered this blog and you are reading at some date in the future.  Every month we study a book on money or mindset in the Money Mindful book club.  You can find out all about it by going to the book club page.  There you will also find pages for the previous books we have studied with accompanying book club meeting recordings as well as any podcast episodes or links to the authors we covered.

I don’t know about you but I find often when I am learning about something or want to do something, I think about it for a really long time.  I weigh up all my options.  I ponder what the best thing to do is.  Sometimes I think about it for so long I don’t even end up doing what I am thinking about.  Do you ever do this?

How long have you thought about setting up an emergency fund or about investing in shares?  But you haven’t done it yet because you are still deciding what account is best for your emergency savings or you want to start investing in shares but you haven’t decided what book to learn about it from or which online course to do or maybe you don’t know where to start.

Does this sound familiar?

And let’s not even get started with when we try to decide what colour knit is best for us this winter.  Should you get the grey or the cream knit? Plain or cable?

As humans we waste a lot of time in indecision.

Come on, I know you know exactly what I am talking about.  You’re at the restaurant and you wait for the very last person to order, so you can check what everyone else is getting so you make sure you get the best option.  I see you!  I know you do this because I used to do it all the time too.

And now you are doing it with money.  You want to invest but you don’t know where you should start.  Do you pay your debt off first or do you create your emergency fund?  Should you invest in a property or buy your own home first?

The truth is the best thing to do is exactly what you decide to do.

Decisions make our life.  There is unbelievable power in making decisions.  Let me teach you how. 

Everything you have in your life now is a result of decisions you have made.  The outfit you are wearing right now, the car you are driving, the house you live in, what you ate for breakfast, your current weight, your bank balance.  These are all a result of the decisions you have made.

Now you might argue but I just go with the flow I let the universe work it out.

That’s a decision.

You choose to go with the flow.  Everything you do is a decision whether you do it consciously or not.  Not making a decision is a decision.

Now here is the thing and I want you to really hear this, decisions move us forward in life.  Decisions create results.  Actions and non-actions.  Why am I telling you this?  Because so many of us are afraid to make decisions.  We are afraid of making the wrong decision and we sit in confusion for what can sometime seem like an eternity.

Should I read the Barefoot Investor next or should I get a book on shares?  Or maybe I should just really concentrate on work at the moment.  This new project is really important.  But I do want to get better at managing my money.  I don’t know where to start.  Everyone has read the Barefoot Investor.  Maybe I should get a book by a woman author instead.

Come on!  This is the kind of crazy sh*t we play out in our heads.  We spin in indecision and end up doing nothing.  Which, by the way is a decision.

So, what’s wrong with not making a decision?  Why is making a decision so important.

When we stay in indecision, nothing happens.  We stay exactly the same.  This is why our brains pulls these shenanigans on us because when we don’t make a decision, we stay put in the cave so to speak.  We stay safe.  But that’s not how we want to live our lives yeah?

If you want to get ahead in life; make a change, set a goal and actually reach it.  This involves making decisions.

There are no wrong decisions.  Hang on a minute Meaghan, say what??

Here is the decision-making process.

It looks like this.

You make a decision. 

You back yourself. 

You DECIDE you made the right decision. 

Then you learn from that decision.  It’s that simple.

You decide to get the Barefoot Investor, you love it.  You read it cover to cover.  You rave about it to all your friends.  You do exactly what he says and make all these changes to your money situation.  Or you decide to get the Barefoot Investor, you read the first couple of pages, you decide it’s not what you thought it would be, so, you put the book down, you learn that Scott Pape isn’t the right teacher for you. Period.  Either way you have moved forward.  Do you see how powerful this is?

We get so hung up on having to make the right decision.  We don’t want to get it wrong.  But we don’t learn what is the ‘right‘ way, until we try it.

Making decisions will propel you forward.  Try it. 

Let me go over the basic again.

You make a decision.

You back your decision 100%.

You do don’t indulge in self-doubt.  Or what my coach so loving calls my pile of sh*t I like to roll around in.

You do not question whether or not you made the right decision.

Do you know how to tell what is the right decisions?

It’s easy.

It’s the decision you made.

There are no wrong decisions!  Say what?

Seriously, I need you to really hear this.  The right decision is the decision you made at the time.

Once you have made a decision you may discover later down the track that the decision didn’t get you the result you wanted or that you were expecting.

Okay no problem, you learn from that experience and move on to the next decision.

It’s seems like an insignificant example but I think the restaurant one is one most of us can relate to so I will go with.

What if you decide to get the salmon and chip but then you discovered that they don’t do crispy skin and the chips were more like wedges and the salad wasn’t very big.  Okay no big deal, now you know next time you will order something else.  But what if the salmon had been the most amazing salmon you had ever had the chips were thin and crispy and the salad was a perfect mix of exactly what you love?

You had no way of knowing until you decided and ordered.  This is life folks.  And I can imagine you saying but Meaghan I don’t want to eat salmon that doesn’t have crispy skin.  You are not going to know this outcome or the result until you go ahead and make the decision.

At restaurant we eventually make a decision right because we are forced to.  There is literally a waiter there waiting to take our order.

But in our own lives, there is no one waiting but ourselves.  So we ruminate on a decision until we start going grey or worst when we finally make a decision we doubt ourselves.

Well I’m here to tell you stop it.

I know you are telling yourself you must make the right decision.  But we can’t predict the future.  We can plan and take the action required to get the result we want but we are not going to know if it will get us that result until we try.

I want you to go to fantasy land for a minute and imagine what kind of person you would be and the result you would create in your life if you didn’t waste so much time overindulging in confusion also a form of indecision.

What if you just made decisions- quickly.  Backed yourself 100% and moved forward with your life.  You’re at the restaurant you see two options you want and then you pick one, boom.  You just decide you made the right choice and then you have 100% attention to engage with your companions and have a wonderful evening.

Granted some decisions take a little bit of research.  For example you might be researching an insurance company or an index fund you want to invest in.  I’m not suggesting you just see the first policy or fund and get it.

But set yourself a time limit or frame work.  Ok I am going to compare 5 index funds on offer at Vanguard.  I’m going to pick the one I will invest in by the Thursday 8pm this week.

Then do it.

We indulge in so much drama in our heads about making decisions.

Stop the drama.

Make a decision.

Back your decision.  Decide that you have made the right decision.

More forward with your life.

I know you are reading this because you want to make changes in your life.  Maybe it’s to do with money but maybe it’s to do with who you want to be as a person.  The person you want to grow into being.

I help women change their lives.  I coach women through the process to becoming who they want to be. You can request a consult with me by emailing me here.

Have a beautiful week my friend. Until next time bye bye.

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