Failure Avoidance

The biggest difference between people who flourish in life and those who don't is not money, health, talent, connections or looks - it's wisdom. 

Wisdom is the ability to make good decisions.  According to yourdictionary.com, wisdom is 'the ability to know what is true or right, common sense or the collection of one's knowledge.'

I used to wonder what it would be like if we could buy a gallon of common sense in the local hardware store...

A man called Harold Smith once said, "More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren't so busy denying them."

When making important decisions it helps to pause and calmly think about things. The balance here usually has to be struck somewhere between haste and procrastination. 

Wise people never make important decisions in the wrong emotional state. Seldom do people choose the right course of action in the wrong frame of mind. For example, an anxious mind and an exhausted body are never a good combination when it comes to making big decisions.

It also helps to have people around us with the wisdom to be discerning and the courage to be truthful - no one is an island really.

It's therefore easy to see why people hesitate and shy away from making decisions.

Some people actually believe growth comes as a result of avoiding problems (and the decisions associated with these) and navigating a carefully crafted pathway through life as a result. Growth however is the ability to handle larger, more interesting and perhaps more complex problems.

Usually, when people do failure avoidance, they will never achieve the kind of courage and risk taking that leads to bold innovation.  It takes courage to make decisions.  Some decisions can have big consequences not just for the decision maker, but for many others.

Risk is part of the process.  Wisdom when applied reduces the risk factor and is much more measured than knee jerk.

 

In summary, each of us live in a world of choice.  Each choice we make will have a consequence. 

Stephen Covey said:

"I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions."

Sent from my iPad