Why Indecision Is the Biggest Reason You’re Missing Out
In his poem The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost wrote about standing at a fork in the road, admitting, “long I stood.” That suspended moment—caught between options—is where many of us live far too long. We hesitate, delay, and wait for certainty, afraid of choosing poorly, and end up paying a greater price by not choosing at all.
How much life are you missing because of indecision?
Deciding is hard. We don’t want to make mistakes. We want to make informed decisions. Sometimes we just don’t know what we want. So we pause. We ponder. We procrastinate. And while we’re waiting, life keeps moving.
Indecision is the thief of opportunity. It prevents progress, fosters frustration, and stifles success. If you want to improve your life, start making more decisions. As Oprah Winfrey once said, “Nothing happens until you decide. Make a decision and watch your life move forward.”
Indecision Is More Costly Than We Realize
What’s easy to overlook is that indecision isn’t neutral. It doesn’t protect us from failure. It only delays progress.
Indecision doesn’t preserve energy—it drains it. Each unresolved choice quietly taxes our attention, leaving us more exhausted, not more prepared.
Unmade decisions linger in the background of our minds. The email we know we need to send. The tedious by necessary project we keep putting off. The behavior we promised ourselves we’d change… someday. None of these require much effort on their own, but together they weigh on us. By the end of the day, we’re not tired from doing too much—we’re tired from not moving anything forward.
Why We Struggle to Decide
There are many reasons we struggle to decide. We worry we won’t get the outcome we want. We’re afraid of looking foolish if things don’t work out. We want certainty, or at least more information than we have. But certainty is rarely available in real life, and waiting for it often costs more than acting without it.
Former U.S. Secretary of State and four-star general Colin Powell understood this tension well. He followed what became known as the 40/70 Rule. Powell believed you should never make a decision with less than 40% of the information—you risk acting blindly. But you should also never wait until you have more than 70% of the information—because by then, you’re likely stalling, overanalyzing, or missing the opportunity altogether.
Most people don’t get stuck because they’re careless. They get stuck because they’re waiting for perfect clarity—and perfect clarity rarely comes.
Another trap of indecision is believing decisions are scarce, as if one wrong move will permanently derail our lives. But decisions aren’t in limited supply. If you make a poor decision, you can make another decision to correct it. Learn from the first choice, adjust, and move forward. Progress favors those who decide, act, reflect, and decide again.
Fast and frequent decisions—paired with reflection—almost always generate more momentum than slow, infrequent ones. Momentum builds confidence. Confidence builds clarity. And clarity makes future decisions easier.
This is why so many long-term regrets aren’t rooted in failure.
Most of the regrets people carry into later life aren’t about what they tried and failed at—but about what they never tried at all.
Progress Comes From Small Decisions
Big decisions can feel overwhelming, which is why it helps to think small. You don’t need to decide everything today. Decide the next best action. Send the email. Begin the project. Take the first step. Small decisions create visible progress, and visible progress changes how you feel.
Instead of ending the day restless and frustrated, you go to bed knowing something moved forward. That feeling matters. It compounds. It creates energy instead of draining it.
As Jim Rohn said, “You cannot make progress without making decisions.” And progress—however modest—is what creates momentum, satisfaction, and the sense that your life is actually moving somewhere.
Don’t let indecision quietly steal your days. Decide something. Take a step. Notice how different it feels to end the day having made progress instead of standing still.
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