It helps to call things what they really are.
Not too long ago I went shopping for an office cabinet at Tuesday Morning. Mostly, I wanted to get out of the house after another week of working from home. I had bought a few things there before so I thought I would check it out. I arrived just as the store opened and perused their small selection of furniture. I found a cabinet I liked well enough. I wandered around other parts of the store and found a small fake boxwood topiary on the clearance rack. It spoke to me. I went back to see what it would look like on top of that cabinet. Lovely! I noticed a beautiful upholstered gray chair across the aisle. I loved the tufted back! It was comfortable to sit in. And there was another one just like it parked on the end cap.
Several years ago I would have hemmed and hawed. I would have told myself that I was just looking, and I wasn’t looking for chairs. It wasn’t in my budget, and you’re supposed to plan purchases like this. I would have said I needed to go home and think about it. But I don’t especially enjoy shopping, and I quite liked these chairs.
I decided to tell myself a different story.
To be completely transparent, I had just listened to Jody Moore talk about The Speed of your Decisiveness and its relationship to success. I decided to practice my decisiveness. I decided:
- These were the perfect chairs to flank the cabinet for my office
- They would fit in my SUV if I put the cabinet in the front passenger seat
- There was time to get them loaded in the back of my SUV and still get home in time for my 11:00 a.m. appointment
I was only wrong about one of those things, so I made another decision. I put one chair, both seat cushions, and the cabinet in the back of my SUV. I left the other chair at the store to pick up later, after my appointment.
I have not experienced a moment of regret. You might think this is because I bought the right chairs. Nope. The real reason is that I decided to love them and never look back. When we don’t take ownership of our decisions, we wear ourselves out wondering whether we did the right thing. It isn’t necessary and it can be exhausting.
Just decide that you made the perfect decision for you and then see how many decisions you can make before you get tired.