78: Post-Decision Doubt
On today’s episode, I am talking about post-decision doubt. This has been coming up recently with some of my clients and I think this is such a great topic. We talk a lot about powerful decisions a lot on the show. I talk about how to make them and how to follow through with them.
When you make a powerful decision it doesn’t mean all your doubt, mind chatter, and what-ifs disappear. This seems to be what we think should happen and it can really throw us for a loop. Post-decision doubt is part of the process. Doubt is going to show up before you make decisions and it is going to show up after you make them. I share some practical steps you can take to put doubt in the passenger seat where it belongs.
In This Episode:
[01:18] I talk a lot about powerful decisions. I talk about how to make them and how to follow through with them, but when you make a powerful decision it doesn’t mean all your doubts, mind chatter, and what-ifs disappear.
[01:45] Business owners will make these powerful decisions and be all in and they move forward and the doubt shows up again so they think they made the wrong decision.
[02:26] Post-decision doubt is part of the process.
[03:15] Doubt is going to show up before you make decisions and it is going to show up after you make them. It is your job to understand the place it has and not spend your energy entertaining and worry about it.
[04:27] Becoming a person who always follows through on their decisions is a skill that will create so much freedom in your life.
[05:16] When you think that something isn’t working you have to get coached or coach yourself on what is really happening and your thoughts about it. Make a plan ahead of time of how long you will commit to your decision and what information you will use to evaluate it.
[06:59] Most people are not early adopters of new things.
[07:43] We give our time and energy to what we think is the most important thing right now. We are very now focused.
[08:37] When we make the decision to commit ahead of time it was easier to coach through the obstacles, recommit, and go back to focus so you can execute the next steps.
[09:07] Make a plan for how long you are committed to your decision, decide what criteria you are going to use to evaluate it, and at what point you are going to look at everything and decide to keep going or change something about the decisions.
[09:39] The more practice you get at making powerful decisions the less intensely you will experience that post-decision doubt.
[09:57] Doubt is just part of the process. It is not a problem, it gets to come along on the ride, you are in charge, and your decision is the driver.
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Transcript
Hey, Mavericks. Welcome to the show. Today we're talking about post decision doubt. So this has been coming up recently with some of my clients. And I think this is such a great topic, I can't wait to dive in and tell you all about it. So I talk a lot about powerful decisions, how to make them and how to follow through on them. But when you make a powerful decision, it doesn't mean that all of your doubts and all of the mind chatter and the what ifs are going to simply disappear. This seems to be what we expect to happen. And it can really throw us for a loop.
So what I see happening is that business owners will make these powerful decisions, they'll really like their reasons, they'll be all in on it. And then they move forward a little bit. But the doubt shows up again. And then they make it mean that they must have made the wrong decision. And then when they think that they've made the wrong decision, they'll either go back to indecision and start waffling again between all of the options, or they change their decision, and they start going in a different direction. And all of these things are toxic to your business.
So here's the thing that I want you to know about post decision doubt. It's part of the process, it's going to be there. One of my favorite concepts from Elizabeth Gilbert's book, Big Magic is when she talks about fear and personifying fear as though it's another person. And that person always gets to ride along in the car with you on your creative journey. The rule, though, is that the fear never gets to drive, and it never gets to navigate. It just gets to be there sitting in the passenger seat, it can sing along, it's totally fine. And I want you to think about doubt in the same way. It's technically the same thing, right? Since doubt is just a form of fear. But doubt feels different in our body. So let's go ahead and give it its own personality. So doubt is going to show up before you make decisions. And it's going to show up after you make them. That's its job. And your job is to understand the place that it has, and to not spend your energy by entertaining it and fussing about it and worrying about it making it a problem. And instead, keep your eyes on the road. Keep your focus on what lies ahead for you.
So let's come back to powerful decisions for a moment. I want to invite you to always follow through on the decisions that you make. Now I'm going to guess that you're having a doubt right now, right? It might sound something like, that sounds way too hardcore. I don't want to live my life by always having to do everything just because they said I would I get it. That's not really what I'm saying. But just roll with me here where you might have another doubt like, well, what if it doesn't work? When do I stop? When do I change course because I don't want to waste my time doing things that don't work. I know these doubts very well. It's almost like they've been in my car too.
But becoming a person who always follows through on their decisions is a skill that will create so much freedom in your life. I promise you that you will waste way more time and energy in the course of your life on indecision than you will ever waste on making a decision and seeing it through to the end, even if it doesn't create the result that you wanted. In the difference between following a decision to the end and indulging in trying new things or indulging in indecision is intention. Never change your mind on a whim, or change your mind based on evidence that you find when you're thinking that it's not working. So when you think something isn't working, you got to start by getting coached, or coach yourself, to really understand what is happening, and what your thoughts are about it.
You can listen to other podcasts on the distinction between those two things, separating facts from stories, but that's what you got to know. So start by understanding what is actually going on what you're thinking about it and don't make any changes. What you want to do instead, is make a plan ahead of time for how long you will commit to your decision, and what information you will use to evaluate it so that then you can decide to keep it or change it. So I have an example to share. I have a client who launched a new subscription based program for her business. And we worked on the program together, we worked on the launch. And we worked on the evaluation and the relaunch. And we designed all of that ahead of time. And I asked her in the beginning, if she was willing to take six months to hit the numbers that she wanted to see for every month. Right.
So if we build this thing, and let's say that it takes you six months to have the result, but then every month after that, you're getting the result that you want. We all understand that right. That's how we think about the big goals that we set. Because I knew that in month one, as she was introducing this brand new concept, even with all of the shiny, sexy copy that she wrote in the laser focused benefits of what she was offering, I knew that she was still mostly going to hear crickets. Because most people are not early adopters of new things.
Our brains need repetition, they need familiarity, and they need the solution to show up when they're having the problem. So you can make the best offer in the world to the perfect person. And if they don't think that that is what they need right now, then they're unlikely to buy it right now. Now, again, some people are early adopters, and they'll jump on the bandwagon, and they'll stock up for the future. But most people have already allocated their resources to other things that they do think they need. Right now, this is just how we operate. So and I'm not just talking about money, I'm also talking about time and energy, we give it to what we think is the most important thing right now. We're very now focused. So you do want to knock your offers out of the park. And so we worked on that you want to have something that's really spectacular, something that people will want to buy immediately. And other people will want to remember it so that it pops back into their mind in the future, when they are thinking about the problem and wanting to solve it.
So with my client, we planned this, we coached on this, and she launched it. And then she didn't hit the numbers she thought she was going to hit in the first month. And to be honest, she really wanted to hang out in the land of this was a terrible idea. I should scrap everything it isn't working, I should go back to what I was doing before, right. But because she made that decision with me ahead of time, and she committed to giving it six months to make it work the way it was designed, the easier it was to coach through the obstacles and to recommit and go back into focus so that she could keep executing the next steps of her plan. And by month two, she had some momentum. And by month three, she was on track to hit those numbers.
So I recommend this for any decision where you experience post decision doubt, make a plan for how long you are committed to your decision, and decide what criteria you're going to use to evaluate it. And at what point you're going to look at everything and decide to either keep going with that same decision or to change something about the decision. And you're not going to have to do this with every single decision. You make some decisions you will make and you won't have any doubt after that. This isn't something that's going to play you every day, every decision that you make.
And the more practice you get making powerful decisions, the less intensely. You will experience that post decision doubt. But for some things, you're just going to have a lot of attachment to the doubt. And it's going to keep showing up. And this is where it's really helpful to remember that doubt is just part of the process. It's not a problem. It gets Come along for the ride, but you are the one in charge and your decision is the driver. All right, you guys go forth and make powerful decisions in your business and your life. I'm here to help if you want it and you can schedule a free session with me at the claritysession.com have a fabulous week.