Learning how to become less indecisive is a very important step towards success. Whether in your daily life or as it relates to your business, making decisions is always a necessity. And that is why if you find that you are getting too indecisive, that is dangerous.
As an entrepreneur, when it comes to defining your success in your business, a lot has to do with your decisions.
Every day, there are opportunities before your eyes, which needs you to get decisive to take them.
If you hesitate unwisely, you might be letting go of the best opportunity to scale your business, which you desire.
Hence, it might be that you are not very decisive when it comes to choosing what opportunities to pursue and which not to.
Additional, your indecision might be glaring when it comes to implementing ideas and taking actions at work.
You might struggle with making some needed changes as it relates to the work or even your employees.
And such indecisiveness might also be causing more problems than solutions for your organization.
There are various reasons why you might be suffering from such indecision and would need to get more decisive.
As we go further in this article, you will learn some of the causes of indecision, and see which one resonates with you.
Also, we will share with you some of the dangers of being indecisive, to avoid that path.
Additionally, you will find out some of the things you can do to get more decisive, especially as a business owner.
Of course, the many benefits that come from taking swift decisions at all times would impel upon you the importance of learning to be more decisive.
What though does it mean to be more decisive? Let’s see.
How to Become Less Indecisive – What it Means to Be Less Indecisive
Simply put, being decisive refers to having the power and quality of making decisions.
Every day, we are all faced with choices that we are expected to make certain decisions on.
A lot of these choices or options before us are very critical, in that they affect the quality of our lives and our goals to a large extent.
This is true for you especially if you are an entrepreneurial leader or business owner.
The question though is; “how do you react when you have decisions to make?”
Do you spend too much time deliberating on what to do, or are you quick to make your choice and decide?
That is what marks the difference between being decisive and indecisive.
An indecisive person would usually delay inappropriately in making decisions, for different reasons.
Such one might take a long time or even ‘forever’ making up his/her mind especially on matters needing quick attention.
At work, you might be showing yourself as indecisive when you allow important matters needing your swift action to go unattended for a long time.
Or it could be that you and your team spend more time deliberating on issues and discussions than taking necessary actions.
On the other hand, you are more decisive when you don’t spend the whole day thinking about your decisions.
Instead, you are swift about making decisions that impact the team and your business.
Also, you can show yourself to be more decisive when you stand by your decisions.
It is one thing to make decisions quickly and come off as being decisive, but do you stand by your decisions?
If you have a habit of backing down on the decisions you make or retract them, then that is still indecision on your part.
How to Become Less Indecisive – Some Major Causes of Indecision
Before you can know the best approach to solving your indecisiveness or being more decisive, you need to diagnose the problem.
That means that until you recognize what exactly is causing your indecision, it would be hard to know how to solve it.
Having said that, there are various reasons why someone might be indecisive, especially in personal life and at work.
Here are a few of the major causes of indecisiveness, see if you can pick out which ones affect you:
Fear of Failure
This is one of the most common reasons why many people tend to become indecisive.
The fear of failure in this case is the fear that you might not make the right decision or choices.
So many choices and decisions have been negatively affected by the fear of failure.
It is that fear you have that when you make some decisions or take certain actions, it would not be a success.
A lot of people have passed on great opportunities due to indecisiveness owing to the fear of failure.
They might even see the benefits of taking those actions and how it would affect them positively, but they rather decide not to act.
This is because they feel that they would most likely fail, and they don’t like the aftermath of failure.
Hence, with that fear in you, you would rather decide not to try at all and therefore postpone decisions or not make them at all.
If you find that you suffer from this though, it would interest you to know that you can overcome the fear of failure.
Perfectionism
Another reason why you might be indecisive is if you are a perfectionist.
A perfectionist is someone who always wants everything she does to be of the topmost quality and state; being perfect.
If you are a perfectionist, it means you expect that whatever result you get is the best possible, and set a very high bar of what success is to you.
That way, it is hard for you to get satisfied with anything or everything, and always wish you should get better than that.
This can also make you get indecisive.
Because you are a perfectionist, you might tend to stall when making decisions, waiting for what seems the best option for you.
When others might be quick to take certain actions and see what happens, you prefer to wait for when everything seems right.
Even if the obvious decision at that time appears to be the best available, you tend to be indecisive, because you are a perfectionist.
If you think you struggle with indecision, perhaps this is responsible for that.
Undue Attention to the Opinions of Others
As surprising as it might sound, some people are actually indecisive because of what people will say or think of them.
You might be faced with an obvious decision that you feel is the best now.
But instead of making that decision that would work for you, you hesitate because of the opinions of others.
Those whose opinions and views you hold so dearly might be family members, friends, or even the general public.
In this area, it means that your indecision doesn’t actually come from you not believing in the decision, but on external factors.
Giving undue attention or credence to the opinions of others might make you indecisive.
Lack of Self-Belief
Additionally, you might be struggling with indecisiveness because you do not have the right belief and confidence in yourself.
When you lack belief in who you are and what you are capable of, it can affect your daily choices or decisions.
Take, for example, you might have a very beautiful opportunity before you in your business, that promises a lot of returns.
Perhaps all you need to do is submit an application or make a pitch to the business or individual offering that opportunity.
However, if you lack self-belief, you will most likely draw yourself back from taking the necessary step to bad that opportunity.
Without self-confidence, you will repeatedly pass over very good opportunities, because you already accept that you are not good enough.
And this might also be a reason why you are indecisive and needs to become less indecisive.
Overthinking
Sometimes, the reason for your indecisiveness might be because you tend to overthink your decisions.
Fair to say, you might be overthinking your decisions because you want to make sure you make the right ones.
However, when you overthink things, you tend to spend the time that should have been used in making the decisions to think of the pros and cons.
To be certain, it is very important to think about the decisions you have to make before jumping into them.
However, there is a clause.
Hence, if you overthink your decisions, it might actually be working against you, and make you indecisive.
You might just find that you keep cycling around the same spot, and not make headways.
It is as they usually say: “two steps forward and three steps backward”.
Entertaining “too many” Options
Another cause of indecision is having to choose from too many options.
Sometimes, as a business owner, you might be faced with too many options or choices to pick from.
At such times, it might be very difficult to make a decision and stand by it.
This is because you’ve confused your mind with the many options or choices that are before you.
And this in turn can make you indecisive.
How to Become Less Indecisive – What Can Help
Do you find that one or more of the factors mentioned above is making you indecisive?
If yes, there is no reason to get worried.
Whatever the cause of your indecision is, there are practical measures you can take to become less indecisive.
These steps are what you should start working on right away, so you can train your mind to be more active, and be more decisive.
Here are a few of them:
How to Become Less Indecisive – Stop Striving for Perfection
As you already know, one of the reasons why you might be indecisive is that you strive for perfection oftentimes.
That means when you have a decision to make that borders on your business or personal life, you are always looking for the premium choice.
While it is not good to settle for less, it is good to know that sometimes good is enough.
There are certain decisions you have to make that the outcome readily before you is the best at that point.
Hence, expecting a ‘perfect’ outcome from such a decision might be ‘too much’ expectations.
As such, you would be indecisive because you are waiting for an eventuality that is far-fetched.
On the other hand, when you learn to let go of perfectionism, you see situations more clearly for what they are.
You lower your expectations on certain things, and it helps you to become less indecisive.
Avoid Overthinking/Overanalyzing
Some of us are overthinkers, in that we tend to think about things more than it’s necessary to think.
It might be that you fall in this category, and your overthinking is beginning to affect your decisions.
If that is the case with you, then you need to work on your thought process.
True, it is always good to weigh the pros and cons of every decision and choice you have to make.
After all, if you do not think before making decisions, you might end up making very poor choices or wrong ones.
However, while you should think about the decisions before you, it is best not to overthink.
You must realize that never in history has just thinking ever help you to get anything done.
Even if you think for a whole day, week, or year, you would still have to decide, then act for anything to happen.
You might indeed fear making a wrong decision or choice.
However, at the end of the day, you would definitely need to choose an option.
And even if the choice ends up being the wrong one, the good thing is that you can learn from it and get better.
Therefore, for you to become less indecisive, you need to control your thought process and avoid overthinking things.
See Failure as an Opportunity to Learn
For some of us who are currently indecisive, what we might need to do is overcome our fear of failure.
The fear of failure has this grip on people, which makes them keep procrastinating even the most important decisions.
However, to overcome this fear, it is best to have a proper view of what failure is all about.
After all, there is no successful business owner or entrepreneur that has been able to record success without failing many times.
Successful business owners do not see failure as ‘not good enough but rather as an opportunity to learn and grow.
Hence, when you are faced with a critical decision, understand that there are two possible outcomes to it.
It might either end positively, i.e. the way you picture or wish it to be.
And the outcome is that it ends the other way that you didn’t expect.
However, be sure that there is a certain probability of winning that comes with taking the action.
But when you fail to act at all, you have removed all probabilities of winning that there could be, and your indecisiveness might cost you more.
This is why you will need to overcome the fear of failure if you want to become less indecisive.
Don’t Try to ‘Bite More Than you can Chew’; Break Decisions Into Bits
Could it be that your indecisiveness is a result of always wanting to make big decisions at all times?
Setting goals is very important, as you are most likely aware of it by now.
However, it is always advisable to break down your goals into short-term and also milestones.
The same can be said of making decisions.
When you have decisions to make, and they seem to be too big, set a timeframe for making the big decision.
Then, try to see what smaller decisions you can make along the way towards making the big one.
When you do this, it removes undue pressure off your shoulders and can help you become less indecisive.
Get Yourself a Mentor
One other reason you might be getting indecisive especially in your business endeavor is a lack of knowledge.
When you need to make decisions on certain things and do not have enough facts on them, it can slow down your decision.
This is where getting a mentor can help.
If you have a mentor in your industry, you can easily approach such ones and ask them to give you the necessary information and guidance you need.
Also, a mentor can help you overcome the habits and other distractions that might be causing indecisiveness.
When you find a good mentor, they can give you the necessary support you need to become less indecisive.
Set Deadlines
Another factor that could be dragging you back from making important decisions is not having a timeframe attached to tasks and responsibilities.
It could be that you are being indecisive on a matter because there is no deadline attached to it.
Left for you, you can stay that way, thinking and analyzing such decisions for the entire day or more.
However, when there is a deadline, it gives a sense of urgency.
Having a deadline for tasks and decisions you have to make would help you ‘sit up’, so to speak.
Hence, you would not waste time overthinking or waiting for the best conditions but get right into it, as you have a deadline to meet.
Build up Your Self Confidence
Self-doubt or lack of self-belief remains one of the most common causes of indecision.
This self-doubt might be from having a series of past experiences of making the wrong decisions and suffering the consequences.
However, you need to build up your self-confidence by realizing that there are always going to be uncertainties with decisions.
In fact, to build up your confidence levels, you might intentionally make some bad decisions with low risks.
This would train you to become more resolute in the face of difficult decisions and make you more decisive.
Understand that Making No Decision is Still a Decision
So far, you might be thinking every time we reference making a decision, it means taking an action to actually do something.
However, could it be that sometimes when you need to decide to do something, you end up deciding not to do it?
It might be that the choice you made not to carry out that task turns out good in the end.
If that is the case, then you should start seeing such choices as actual decisions on their own and not indecision.
Sometimes, not decide at all is still a decision, and you should always be conscious of that.
Final Thoughts – How to Become Less Indecisive
Have you been able to identify what is the cause of your indecisiveness?
Is it a tendency to always want to be perfect in your choices, a lack of self-belief, overthinking, or too many options?
Well, whatever it is, identifying the problem is always the first step towards finding the solution.
You can look at the practical measures we’ve considered so far, and see how you can become less indecisive.
This decision to work on your indecisiveness will surely help you as you grow and develop your business enterprise.
