Just do it already

     One of my personal requirements this year was reading. Twelve books for the twelve months to be exact. Since starting to read more this year I have also found myself reading lots of other things as well. The teams blogs, articles and blogs from other influential people and even some of the local paper now that it magically shows up on our front porch. Most of the things that I have chosen to read have a similar theme. The shortened, to-the-point version of this would be "if you want something, you need to get off your butt and do something about it".  
     Wanting something, or even making a plan to get it, does absolutely nothing if you don't actually take action. Another lesson that has come out of this is that if you need to make a decision then make it. If you trust your knowledge in a particular situation, then the only reason to put off making the decision is fear. Yes, fear. Mostly, the fear of failure. Unfortunately the decision will still need to be made and choosing not to make it, out of fear, will only add stress to your life.
     This week I decided to embrace this as true and implement this at work. The results, so far, have been very enlightening. I manage a business that employs over 100 staff most of which fall under four different trades. Generally by the end of the week there are so many things that "slipped through the cracks" that going to work on Monday's is fairly stressful.
     This week however is much different. During the week, instead of pushing things off I made decisions, on most things, at the time issues came up. At one point one of the floor supervisors was in my office. He was in there for about fifteen and in that time I had five different phone calls and two other people come to the door. As I hung up one phone a different one would ring making the timing seemed almost planned. During this time I also managed to spend enough uninterrupted time with the supervisor to answer the questions that he had for me as well. Before he left he looked at me and shook his head. I thought maybe he was discouraged by what had just happened so I asked him what was wrong. "I don't know how you do this" is all that he said. Normally by this point the stress would have been through the roof. By changing the standard "let me think about it and get back to you" to actually just making a decision the stress seemed to disappear. 
     I think that too often we allow fear to control our action which then becomes inaction. This inaction then creates stress and increased pressure. For me, the confidence that has come from practising martial arts as well as joining the I Ho Chuan team has allowed me to trust myself enough to face these fears. Will every decision be perfect? No. Will all of the answers be correct? Probably not. Will something fail because of a decision that I have made? More than likely. Will I allow the fear of failure to stop me from making decisions? Not on your life. 
     As long as there is a lesson to be learned from each failure, there is no reason to fear the outcome.