The Power of Decision

Whatever you can do or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

Leadership Development Coaching

By Paul de la Garza

The teacher stood before the students and asked, “Do you have plans?”

“Plans, what kind of plans?” asked the student.

“Goals for the year, things you want to do, places you want to go to, you know, plans?”

“Of course, I want to go on vacation this year and learn French. I want to exceed my sales goals if I do that, and I will try, I will get a bonus!”

The teacher looked at the student carefully, studying his expression, then abruptly said, “you are not going to achieve any of your plans.”

“You don’t know that. How do you know what I will achieve and what I won’t!” demanded the student. 

The teacher responded, “unless you make a decision to achieve the plan, with emotion behind it, see it, feel it, know it, you will indeed plan, but that’s just what it will be, a plan that will not be realized.”

Many plans are made today, most with ambitious goals, most with the best intentions… and many go unfulfilled.

These plans are made yet the power behind them is often absent, in other words, there has been no concrete “decision” behind the plan or the goal to make it a reality. These plans, as a result, go unfulfilled.

The reason of this miss is mostly that these are just plans and not definitions that we make about our lives and how these will change our lives, what we will contribute, what we will gain and how it will make our lives richer and better. You see a plan has to have an emotional content behind it, a conviction that is clear and determined. If a plan has this very important element behind it, no deviation will take you away from it. 

 

Unless you make a decision to achieve the plan, with emotion behind it, see it, feel it, know it, you will indeed plan, but that’s just what it will be, a plan that will not be realized.

Think of it this way, a river flows with a determined direction. If the water in it confronts an obstacle, a boulder or simply rocks, compelled by a force of gravity, it will circumvent such obstacle, compelled by that force of gravity so that it can continue its journey and achieve the goal of uniting with the greater body of water, the sea.

Johan Von Goethe, a German 18th-century philosopher and author wrote words that have resonated with me for a long time. “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.”

Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans.

 

The moment one definitely commits oneself then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision,  raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man or woman could ever have dreamed would come his or her way. Whatever you can do or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

In his poem, Von Goethe suggests that there are other forces once we make the decision with passion and conviction, he calls it “providence.”

Consider this, we energize those things on which we focus. If you focus on the achievement of your goal, with that determination to see it, you will call other energies, perhaps of those who surround you, perhaps of the unseen things, that is up to your belief system.

One this is certain, that if you have the commitment, you will be like the water on that river, you will encounter obstacles, but none will take you away from achieving your goal.

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