Gents Journey
Gents Journey
Fearless Decision-Making: Unlocking Success and Personal Growth
Unlock the secrets to making fearless decisions that can redefine your path to success. On today's episode of the Gentleman's Journey podcast, we're diving into the powerful art of decision-making, where you'll learn to conquer the common barriers that hold many back, like fear of failure and perfectionism. Picture a life where every choice is made with unwavering confidence, propelling you towards the life you envision. Get ready to hear an inspiring story about a man who broke free from a high-paying job to pursue his passion for custom jewelry, finding both personal and financial fulfillment.
Join us as we walk through practical strategies, such as the 80-20 rule and maintaining a decision journal, to hone your decision-making prowess. Embrace the idea of prioritizing progress over perfection and learn how to leverage failures as stepping stones to greatness. We'll also connect on how you can reach out for continued engagement and support, whether through texting, email, or social media. Remember, bold actions lead to personal growth and success, and we'll show you how to make them a consistent part of your journey.
"True mastery is found in the details. The way you handle the little things defines the way you handle everything."
Hello and welcome to the Gentleman's Journey podcast. My name is Anthony, your host, and today we're going to talk about something that it's one of the greatest separators that makes somebody a leader. It's something that gets you from good to great, but it's also something, too, that, if you have this, it really always sets yourself up for success. Now, what is this that I'm talking about today? I'm talking about, well, making decisions, making bold and confident choices in your life. So let's go ahead and let's talk about it. You know, what people don't understand about life is this is, if you look at your life right now, your life right now is the sum of the choices that you've made. I'll say that again your life right now, right where you stand, is the sum of the choices that you've made. Every opportunity, every setback, every success. It comes down, or comes back, I should say, to your ability to make decisions. Make decisions, but here's the thing I'm going to be honest with you. Okay, most people hesitate, overthink and let their fear dictate their choices. You know, have you ever found yourself stuck in indecision, where you're afraid to make the wrong choice or the wrong move? Maybe you analyze literally every possible outcome, weighing the pros and cons until you're mentally exhausted, but yet you're still unable to choose. And cons until you're mentally exhausted, but yet you're still unable to choose. Or perhaps you let others make decisions for you, really fearing that your own judgment isn't enough. If this sounds familiar to you, I just want to let you know right now you're not alone, but here's the truth Indecision is a decision in itself. It's a decision to stay stuck and it's a decision to let life pass you by right and realistically. What you're doing, you're surrendering control to external circumstances, and I want to let you know right now that ends today, because I want you to imagine yourself for a moment that if every decision you made you made with confidence, what if you could trust yourself fully to take bold action and know that, no matter what the outcome is, you could handle it? That's what we're here to do Today. I'm going to break down some strategies and some habits of some highly effective decision makers so you can take action, eliminate hesitation and start creating the future you want. Okay, Because here's the thing we're going to take your decision making to the next level. So let's go for it.
Speaker 1:So, when we're talking about this, we really got to talk about what holds you back from making bold, strong decisions, I would say the first thing, honestly, is going to be fear of failure. Have you ever heard that saying paralysis by analysis? Right, if you overanalyze it, you'll never make a choice. Well, if you're always worried about making the wrong choice, it's going to lead to paralysis. You're never going to make the right choice, or you're not going to make a choice at all. Right, and when you're overanalyzing, you know what that looks like or sounds like. What if this happens? What if that happens? What if this happens? And what about this? You play these what if? Scenarios in your mind and it'll drive you absolutely insane.
Speaker 1:Or the next one I say this is probably the biggest one, honestly is you seek perfection. You wait for the perfect time or the perfect answer or the perfect situation to take advantage of the opportunity. There's never a perfect time, okay, there's just not, and the thing about it is the last is allowing external influence to influence you. You have to remember if you let others' opinions dictate your choices, you're not living an authentic life. You're living someone else's life and we're here to be you right because, remember, 2025 is your year, not your friend's year, not your mom's year, unless you're listening to this, it's your year okay, so we got to live your life. Not no one else's okay, because here's the thing like I'm saying before, I'm going to tell you this again ind Indecision is a decision in itself. It's a decision to stay stuck. We have to move past this if you want this to be the best year of your life, okay.
Speaker 1:Now, when we're talking about making decisions right, there's some core elements to it. You know. The first core is clarity. Clarity as, in knowing what you want, you're defining an end goal before you make the choice right. Remember when we talked about like a manifesto, like you make your choices based on this, or like clarity would be like when I have my values set in front of me, my choices become clear and easy. Right, because you make just choices based on your values. Right.
Speaker 1:And the next thing is, I would say the next core of making decisions and not being indecisive is is being confident. You have to believe in your ability to handle any outcome, good or bad, you know like. That's why I say you know, when bad things happen, I always preface it with that this is happening for me and not to me, Meaning that whatever the situation is good or bad, it's happening for me and not to me, meaning that whatever the situation is good or bad, it's happening for me. It's giving me the necessary tools I need to be successful, and then I can create bad situations, or bad situations will happen, and there will be a positive outcome for me. Right, that's having confidence, knowing that I can handle whatever outcome it is.
Speaker 1:The next thing is speed. Quick decision making prevents wasted time and missed opportunities. Remember, you miss all the opportunities you don't take advantage of. You miss every shot you don't take right, and this is the thing too. Let's say you failed right. Let's say you took a chance and you failed. You know what the great thing about failure is. You can learn from it. You can see your mistakes as stepping stones, not as roadblocks. And the last thing is is taking ownership. Stop blaming circumstances or people. Stop that. Own your decisions fully. I'm going to take a drink here. Something you have to understand about strong decision makers you can ask any of them. They do not wait for the perfect answer. They take action immediately and they adjust along the way.
Speaker 1:Now I have a friend and I like this story because it just makes sense right. So I have a friend, jack, and I don't recommend doing this for everybody, but for him it makes sense, right? He had one of those, I don't know. He did something in like corporate insurance, right, but it was very specific and you know he was making well into six figures. I mean well into six figures. But you know what? He absolutely hated his job. He hated his job. He hated it, right, but he loved jewelry. He loved, loved high-end jewelry. So one of the things he started doing he started, obviously, he started going to the university, or I should say the community center, and learning how to make jewelry. And then he learned how to work in 3D printing environments and then he started sculpting his own jewelry, like online.
Speaker 1:And now this guy sells this is no kidding. He sells rings. Just a gold ring with some diamonds in it or whatever, but all custom made. It cost him about maybe $1,000, $1,500. He's selling that ring for $10,000, $15,000, $20,000. Right now, if you wanted to get a ring from him, you would have to wait six months. That's how busy he is.
Speaker 1:Everyone told him that he was crazy. Why are you going to walk away from a six-figure job? But he knew he had to take the leap. But he knew he had to take the leap and now, based on that decision that he made, because he committed to it this guy makes six figures a month, a month, designing jewelry. Yeah, nothing is impossible. Nothing is. The only thing that is impossible is the limits you place on yourself. That's it. So I mean, I look at that, I'm like this. This guy literally stepped away from a very good job that he was a specialist in. He was one of the best in his field, but it was eating him up inside because he wasn't living an authentic life like we were talking about before. He was letting other people make his decisions right and he was miserable at it. He was miserable, he hated it. Now this guy makes jewelry, works two, three days a week and he goes on vacation doing whatever.
Speaker 1:It's absolutely nuts, because the thing about it is, when you start doing this kind of stuff, the people who win in life are the ones that take action, and what you really have to ask yourself as you're going through this is are you going to be one of them or not? It's really that simple. So, as we're talking about this right, I'm going to give you some steps that I do personally that helps my decision-making skills personally. That helps my decision-making skills. You have to train your brain or yourself for decisiveness right. Start making small decisions very quickly, because if you can do that, it'll build confidence for bigger ones Like here's a great way to do it. Confidence for bigger ones Like here's a great way to do it.
Speaker 1:Let's say you want to pick a restaurant. You give yourself 30 seconds. You know. If they're like I don't know, we're going to go to Chipotle, let's just go Right. You just go right, because if you don't do that then it's like oh, I don't know if I want this. Listen, you know what's crazy. If you really look at it, you're going to eat at five or six restaurants and it's just a rotation of it. Sometimes you get like a coupon or your friends will tell you about another restaurant. You'll visit it twice. If you don't like it, guess what it's out of your rotation. And you really rotate between five or six restaurants. That's really it. Let's just be honest. Right Now the next one, and this is just a.
Speaker 1:You know and I'm going to go deeper into this in another podcast but the 80-20 rule 80% of the time, trust your gut. 20% of the time, gather data. When we do this, we limit over-researching before making a decision, like I was talking about earlier. Remember I talked about paralysis over analysis or analysis by paralysis. Jesus, I can't even Paralysis by analysis. There we go. Right. Before you make a decision, there's just going to come a point in time where your gut is going to nine times out of 10 is right, it just is right. And let's say, it's not A lot of the times you're basing a decision on the data that you have in front of you. Anyways, nine times out of 10. So that's what you got to go by. The next thing is I'm going to tell you and this works very well Put pressure on yourself.
Speaker 1:Set a time limit for decisions, because you know what it does Like a deadline. What a deadline does for you. It forces you to commit and move forward. Give yourself the strict deadline for any major decision. Don't move the goalposts back. Once you draw a line of sand, don't cross it until that decision is made.
Speaker 1:And here's the next thing Learn from every decision. Review past choices, what worked for you, what didn't work for you and why was that right. You know we talked about this on earlier podcast. You know a decision journal is such a great thing for you, right? Because there's just something called data overtime, or DOT, and what that will do for you is if you are making good decisions and you start to build a habit of that. That habit is hard to break because you have momentum that carries you through it.
Speaker 1:And this is the other thing too Progress over perfection. What you have to remember is that every action you take, it builds momentum. If you committed to taking one bold action a week and you follow through with it and you see how much easier that is, it's going to give you confidence to do it again and again and again, you know what starts to happen. Your life starts to rise and gets better, and now you're at this level. And then you start making bigger and better decisions. And now you're at this level the levels. It's infinite. Because this is infinite, you have to understand this Because of its its infinity right. Every strong decision you make is really a step towards greatness, but you can only take that step towards greatness if you start doing it.
Speaker 1:Okay, so here's what I'm going to challenge you to do. I want you, I'm going to challenge you to build your decision-making muscle, and what I want you to do is I want you to identify one decision right now you're avoiding, and make it today. Just make the decision. You've mulled over it a million times in your head. I'm going to tell you what you start doing this, that fear and anxiety that you build in your brain starts to go away. It just does right.
Speaker 1:And then next, like we were just talking about earlier, use the 80-20 rule right 80% of your gut, 20% on analysis, so that way you don't get stuck in research mode. Right? This is going to be a big one here. Set a timer for your decision, where you normally overthink it, and make it within that time frame. If you start to understand how your brain works and how you can start calming it down by making decisions before that time is up, this will get easier and easier and easier and it'll become a habit for you, and it's going to be a habit that's going to pay you dividends. Right?
Speaker 1:And last but not least, write down a past decision that worked out well and use it as proof of the capabilities that you have. Stop doubting yourself. You've made great decisions before. You can do it again if you just remember how to, and if you don't, I'm literally laying the groundwork right here to get you to that level. Right, because here's the thing the more decisions you make, the stronger you become. The stronger you become, the more unstoppable. You are Right, because here's the thing. I'm going to be honest with you. The more unstoppable. You are right, because here's the thing. I'm going to be honest with you.
Speaker 1:Every great success or success story starts with the decision. Anything that's amazing, that's happened, any good or bad life starts with a decision. Right now, at this moment, you have the power and control to change your future by the choices you make, and you have a big decision here. Here's the decision Are you going to stay hesitant or are you going to rise up and take control? Decide to move forward today. Take action today. Decide to create the life you deserve, because you deserve it. You deserve the best. Stop holding yourself from greatness. It's okay to be great. Give yourself permission for that, because you deserve it.
Speaker 1:I know I was really hyped up on this one today, guys, but it's just. You know, I know this. Like past two episodes, I've been really hyped up. It says I. I see so many people that have dreams and hopes and desires that are starting to fall down because it's towards the end of the month. Now, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I don't want that to be you. I just don't. I know you have greatness inside of you and I know it's hard to pull out. And I know it's hard to pull out and I know it's exhausting to do. I know that. But if you don't do it, no one else is going to. They're not, and that's not the life I want you to live anymore. I want you to live greatness. The world needs you to live in your greatness. I want you to live anymore. I want you to live greatness. The world needs you to live in your greatness. I want you to live in your greatness. That's what we're all here to be is great, not mediocre, not okay. No, we're here to be great Because guess what? Being great and achieving greatness is contagious, because you start to set the example for other people around you and create an amazing ripple effect. Because, remember, we're on the path to greatness, we're on the path to self-mastery and we're on a path to be a gentleman. That's what this is all about. So just go out there and do it Now.
Speaker 1:Thank you guys, so much for listening today. I know I was really hyped on this one, but I really sincerely appreciate everyone who's listening today and now I'm getting, like you know, some emails and some text messages, so I really really appreciate you guys reaching out. Just remember, I'm always here for you. I'm here to ensure that you are successful Because, remember, 2025 is your year. This is the year of you. This is the year where you turn it around and start making it happen.
Speaker 1:So, again, I want to thank you so much for listening today and if you want to reach out to me, there's three ways, right? First way is texting me on this. If you look in the description and say text me, go ahead and click on that. We can text back and forth, no problem, that's easy for you. Second way is going to be through my email. My email address is anthonyatgentsjourneycom. Please, please, please, never hesitate to reach out to me there. And, last but not least, you can also go to my Instagram. My Instagram is my gents journey. Please, please, please, never hesitate to reach out to me there. Okay, so, guys, thank you so very much for listening today and remember this you create your reality. Take care you.