The late Peter Drucker once wrote, "One has to make a decision when a condition is likely to degenerate if nothing is done…. The effective decision-maker compares effort and risk of action to risk of inaction."17
Drucker recognized that there are risks to standing still. If you're unable to make the decision to accept a new job, you have rejected it by default. If you're unable to make an offer on a house, someone else may snatch it from under you.
Make your decisions explicit. Instead of allowing decisions to happen, be sure you take an active role in making them. This way you don't give up your power to make decisions. It's also healthier to be in control of your own destiny. When I say "healthier," I don't mean figuratively. Professor Marty Seligman, author of Learned Optimism, conducted early studies with animals that experienced what he called learned helplessness. In this case, they were given shocks that they were unable to control. One of his graduate students, Madelon Visintainer, did a similar experiment with rats who were injected with cancer cells that would be expected to give half of them cancer under normal conditions. She placed one-third of the rats in a control group and another third in a helpless situation where they were shocked without any way of preventing it. They learned helplessness. The last group of rats was given shocks but could stop the shocks by pressing a bar. They were able to achieve mastery over the situation. In the control group, half the rats developed cancer, as expected. For the rats that had learned mastery (with the bar), about 30 percent got cancer. But for the rats that had learned helplessness, more than 70 percent developed cancer. While such a study can't be explicitly replicated in humans, Seligman found similar effects in subsequent human research. It argues for taking an active role in your decision making.
Instead of allowing decisions to happen, be sure you take an active role in making them.
Active decisions give you a feeling of mastery over the situation at hand. This will lead to better decisions—and perhaps even better health. Challenge yourself to make clear decisions. Don't procrastinate, sit on the fence, weasel, or waffle. If you make a mistake, pick yourself up and continue onward.
Standing still can be just as risky as moving in the wrong direction.
Standing still can be just as risky as moving in the wrong direction. As Will Rogers once said, "Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."