Decision Making Body Sean Mic

At breakfast with a mentor, the speaker asked what makes him different. The mentor answered that he makes fast decisions. The speaker initially felt disappointed by the simplicity of the answer, but over time realized the importance of making quick decisions in various areas of life, such as hiring, firing, and starting a business. Making fast decisions allows for learning from mistakes and taking decisive action. The speaker encourages listeners to practice decisiveness in small decisions to build confidence and overcome fear of making bigger decisions. So, I was at breakfast with a mentor, someone I have respected for over a decade, what he's built, what he's done. He's built over a nine-figure business, and how many people have done that, 0.01% of people in the world will ever do that. Yep. He was a very unique and special person, and I've seen him develop over the years, which has also been fascinating. But, I was sitting there at breakfast, and I'll stick his brain, because he's done things no one else has. I'm always curious how he's done it. And that was one of the very questions I asked him. I said, what makes you different? What have you done that has been able to allow you to make this happen? And I was expecting that it's just mind-blowing, like a whopper of a secret, like the insider circle secret that only 100 millionaires know, and he said, Euan, I make fast decisions. I make decisions very quickly. I remember feeling so deflated. I was like, that's it? What does that mean? How does that... Fast decisions. I was like, oh, okay, great. So, I ended up writing the note down, and this was a number of years ago, and over time, I've thought about this over and over, and I've watched it over and over again, and I was like, okay, that's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. I've watched people like him, his personality type, aka you, Sean, and a few other guys, same kind of mindset, and I get it now. I understand, and if you were to break it down logically, if you are afraid to make a decision, you don't make it, and you procrastinate. I don't even want to call it procrastinating. I mean, maybe you're just... You don't want to make that mistake, so you wait. You do more research. You do more study. You analyze it more. Let's say, let's take an example of the piano. I don't know why I keep coming back to that. I played the piano for a while, and if I just thought about it, studied, and just analyzed how to do it, meanwhile, you're over there just plugging away, making mistakes, and getting better and better. While I'm still thinking about it, you're halfway to playing a song, right? And that's true, especially in business. You have to know what doesn't work quickly, because if you wait for a long period of time, you're just waiting longer to find that first mistake, as opposed to if you make it quick, you're going to find that mistake out much quicker. Do you resonate with what I'm saying? Does that make sense? Like, when I watch you, I feel like that is how you do a lot of things. Yeah, 100%. I mean, there's... This applies in every area of life, right? And so, for me, the first thing that I think of is, like, business, right? When you're hiring somebody or firing somebody. So, the old saying is, hire slow, right? Because you want to make sure that they fit within the business. They fit your values. They fit your mission. They fit your why and your purpose. And they're buying into that. They're not just focusing on, what is my pay? What is my salary, right? It's the wrong focus. And so, that is a slower decision, versus when you're ready to fire somebody. That's a faster decision, right? Then you have to be decisive, because most people are like, you know what? I'm just going to drag my feet. I don't want to fire him. It's uncomfortable. But that's where you need to make the fast decisions on firing, because if you don't, what happens is, that individual is going to be cancerous within the organization, within the company, because they're pulling everybody else down. What about when people want to start a business? Most people are talking about, oh yeah, I'd love to own my own business. Oh, I've got this idea. It's got some passion behind it. They'd love to do it. But they never end up doing anything. They want to build something, put something together, and they don't do it. And when people don't do things, it's typically out of fear. They don't want to fail. They don't know what to do next. And so, they don't do anything. And that is the death of a dream, right there. Because you had this wonderful idea. It never comes to fruition. What is it with people not wanting to make those decisions that would give them the information they need, right? If I was to now know what I know now, it's like, well, you make that decision to get your information quicker, to figure out that didn't work. What do you think that is? If someone was, let's just use the example of building a business, starting it. They don't, or they take forever. And we know this, the momentum. If you don't have the momentum, it's a slow death. It just doesn't happen. Have you seen that? Yeah, 100%, man. And unfortunately, you see that too often. Because so many people have the aspirations, they have the dreams, they have the wants to do that, right? To go out and build that freedom, build that financial freedom, that time freedom. And what happens is, you procrastinate. You don't make the decision to take that leap of faith, take that step. And what I mean by that is, I'm not saying go out and quit your job. I'm not saying go out and start scratch, right? The decision, when I'm decisive and when I have studied folks that make fast decisions, this could be meaning, stay in your job. But if you want to start that business, what is one decision that you can make to move the needle 1%? Maybe that's start reaching out to your warm prospects or your warm friends in your community and letting them know, hey, this is what I'm doing. This is what I'm doing. That's a decision. That is a decisiveness that you can do. So when you say that, it makes super logical sense to you. It's like, you make that fast decision. Go do that. That's right. Most people are like, brakes. Well, let me think about who I'm going to call. Logical step. And then they say to themselves, well, it's logical. You just think about that, right? Because I'm going to put this list together. And when am I going to call them? I'll call them next week. Think about that. It shows, well, I'm not quite ready yet. I need to do a little more research to do what it is I need to do with them. And then the decisions are spread out. Here's what I know. Because it's not innate. It has come to some people easily. But what I've learned, it is a learnable skill to be able to make decisions faster. Have you noticed yourself speeding up with decision making once you discovered that you can make those decisions and make a mistake and fail? Do you remember that kind of moment? Or can you contrast the day versus the past? So when I think of decision making, the reason I like to make fast decisions is because it allows me to fail and fail fast. And what I mean by that is, if I make that decision to do whatever it may be, then I'm going to learn really quick with that decision on that I made that's either going to move the needle closer to where I want to be or it's not. So I can correct course. Now, for somebody that's listening to this like, man, I struggle with decisiveness. I struggle with decision making. Man, what I would challenge you to do is do something as simple as, what are you having for dinner? Or where are you going for dinner on your date night this week? What do most people do? I don't know. Where do you want to go? The wife says, well, I don't know. Where do you want to go? That's indecisiveness. What ends up happening? Escalation. Fight. Bickering. It's unsure. It's uncertain. And nobody knows what to do next. Yes. So make the decision. I don't care what. McDonald's. Cool. What you just did is you made the decision. You go there. You have a good time. Because it's not where you go, but it's who you're with. So now making that decision like, oh man, the food wasn't that great. But what you were focused on, because where focus goes, energy flows, so where you focused on is making the decision. And your wife's going to say, or your husband's going to say, that was disgusting. Why did you pick that place? They can't argue at you, because you made the decision to go there. And now you just killed two birds with one stone. You made the decision, and you built confidence in doing it. I'm talking to the audience here. You didn't know this. Me and my wife, we'd be like, where do you want to go for dinner tonight? And I wouldn't want to decide, because I wanted to make sure that we were going somewhere she wanted to go. And so I'd be like, I don't know where, where would you like to go? Because I want to be courteous, I want to be a gentleman. She's like, I don't know where I want to go. And I'd be like, I know, if I pick the wrong decision, she's not going to be happy, and it's going to be all me, and we didn't have a good time. That's probably never even happened, but in the mind, it's like, well, if I pick the wrong spot. So I learned, I was like, I don't like this, she's like, no, I don't want to go there, how about here? And then she'd tell me where she wanted to go. So I would make the decision, and it made another decision show up out of the real thing that would come out. It was almost like I was helping her, helping me find out where she really wanted to go, because that would just be easy. It wouldn't matter, but anyway, that's a side note, because you said the McDonald's thing, and it was terrible, so I would always pick that, and the real thing would come out. But you're right, though, on just being decisive. It's okay to make a decision. It can be changed. The consequences of going to the wrong restaurant, for example, is not the end of the world. It's minimal. So on starting a business, for example, when people are taking their time, they're procrastinating, they're not sure what to do yet, how do you comfort them? Because once they feel more comfortable and know it's okay, that's when they start doing it more and more, right? How do you coach someone to get to that moment? Yeah, I think it really comes down to within, internally, confidence in yourself. Because if you're not going to have belief or confidence in yourself, then the number one piece of advice that I would give is find that partner, accountability partner, And I want you to share the story with Kel about the decision to post a video or not in your son Lachlan. Yeah, my son, he's eight, and so what experience does he have in the business world or making decisions? And my wife had made a video for her business and she hadn't posted it yet. And she was talking to my son about it and he was like, why haven't you uploaded it? She was taken aback, she didn't know how to answer. She was like, I guess I'm afraid. And he was like, yeah, but if you just put it out there, then it will be out there and it doesn't matter what happens because you already did it, why would you not? And she was like, looking at this eight-year-old boy and like, why have I not done it? So she uploaded the video, it was done, it was a success. Yes, and so we have to go back to that inner child. That inner child, like Lachlan, he doesn't understand. No fear, no doubt, just do it, mom. And Kel hasn't been burned, hasn't been judged. And so when you make these decisions, one of the things that I concentrate on is like, I don't care what anybody else thinks about this. If I'm going to weigh all options out, and when I say weigh all options out, when it comes to minimal stuff like picking where you go to eat, I'll make the same scenario, right? Hey, Kendra, babe, where do you want to go on this date night? It's your turn to pick. I don't know, you pick. Okay, cool, Texas Roadhouse. Texas Roadhouse, I don't want to go there. Babe, where do you want to go pick? Where do you want to go eat? This isn't stuff that you're going to snap a finger, flip the switch, and go, I'm out, right? Because then you're just going off of emotion. You need to be able to dissect, reflect on that, maybe take a few weeks to look yourself in the mirror, talk to an accountability partner, talk to a best friend, talk to somebody that you admire that you look up to as far as a mentor, and kind of get their perspective on things. But when it comes to fast decisions, man, like we've touched on, on firing, and some of these different things, and places to eat, and just minute stuff of daily decisions, just do it, fail moving forward, and you're going to learn from it. You're going to adjust, you're going to evolve, and you're going to adapt to that environment. It is building muscle. You're like, well, yeah, I'm going to go to a restaurant versus should I get divorced or not? It really does show up in the big things because you resonate, right? You're building confidence in understanding that the consequences are not going to be as dire as I thought it was. And it's something that's so important, and you can look back and see all the slew of decisions that got you there, and it guarantees it's going to be a set of decisions that gets you up, whether you stay or not, but everything revolves around decisions. If your money's not where I want it to be, your fitness, your health, relationships, I guess that's the good part, right? If you've made bad decisions and none of those things are where you want it to be, it's your next decision that's going to get you up. It's the only thing. So it's going to, like you say, get an accountability group or get an accountability partner and really start honing in on that. And you can have the life that you want versus the next set of decisions. I think when it's easy to put something off, that's when the decisions don't get made. Like, let's say it's an email or something that's multi-step and it's a little confusing. Like, I don't know what to do next or that. That seems to be, to me, the thing that shows up the most with folks. Like little things like that. But when you keep putting lots of things off like that, that's an overwhelming... Because there's so many things in the back burner. Decisions that you should have made quickly. Those are the things that, if you keep them off your plate, then you don't get tired. And that's one thing I noticed about you. You said that a week or two ago. You can't have it on your plate because you can't sit with it. It's burning in you. How would you coach someone on that? Because I've been thinking, ever since you said it, I'm like, yeah, that's sitting on my mind. I can't sit with it. I don't like it. I'm going to get it off my plate now. And I feel great. It's done. Then more things come back on the plate. If I don't have the energy or I'm tired, I'll let that one slide. I'll do that tomorrow. And then it eats at me. The first thing is, when these things are sitting, they deplete your energy, they deplete your bandwidth, they deplete your creativity. As an entrepreneur or business owner, these things are weighing on your mind. Whether that be a small thing or a big thing, you have to put a process and system in place. You've got to be intentional about it every single day to come to a decision. You wonder why your sleep is bad. You wonder why your health, your energy, your vitality, your joy, your bliss, all these things are lagging. It's because everything is just weighing on you. Especially if you're a business owner. We have decisions, there's dozens of it, helping grow, level up, and live. There's decisions that are constantly coming into us. It's like, yep, yep, yep, nope, nope, nope. When you make these decisions, when you just make these decisions, falling forward, you're either going to learn one or two things. You're going to learn from it or you're not. You'll just keep repeating, which is a definition of insanity. Obviously, if you're wanting to level up and live, you're going to learn from the decisions that you're making so you build that confidence within. Whatever's eating you up inside, If it's a small decision, okay, cool. Make the decisive decision fast and learn from it. You're either going to fail or you're going to... It's not failure, it's just going to be a learning curve. If it's a big lifestyle change, whether it's a relationship or friendship or it's a job change, then take a week or two, but here's the biggest piece of advice. You need to be intentional about it, look at it every single day. Talk to a spouse, somebody that you respect. Shed the light and share so much perspective. That's why we're so big on mentors, because mentors have typically been where you've been. They're going to be able to help hold you through that. That's awesome, man. We're not putting in 40-hour weeks here, physical hitting hammers, labor stuff, but working with just little things that need to be done. Little things need to be handled. I know what to do, and because I know there's a time frame and an expectation between the two of us, I get them done, knock them out. I certainly don't want to come to you knowing that you've held up your end of the bargain and that's not honorable for me. I'm going to make sure I get it done, and it feels fantastic. You have been an accountability partner for me. I know you don't need that for your personality type. Your skill sets are elsewhere, but you bringing that to the table for me has been huge. How many times have we said it? In our mastermind group, the people you hang around with, you end up being like them. You're going to be a fast decision maker. The more you hang around with them, the faster it's going to happen. I've experienced that firsthand. I almost look at myself and go, who are you? I love this guy. It was leading into my career in medical equipment sales, which I'm really enjoying right now. This has been a big part of me loving that because I've been taking more decisive action. More things have been happening. Things I was afraid of before, I was afraid of the outcomes. Get in there, find out what doesn't work, get back out, and then I can go back in once I know more. Typically, when I go in, I'm not finding out what doesn't work. I'm already finding out what worked. In my mind, it could have been a two-month process to get myself in there and work out all the angles. No, just get in there. Let's say have enough idea of what to do. That's enough to get to the next step because all the confidence that I'm trying to build can never come without the experience. You mentioned honor. Tell me more about that because that's important here. When you're making decisive decisions, when you're a decisive player in the game and you're failing forward, you're moving forward, you're learning is what I'm hearing you say. You said honor, which is an important note to open up and make these decisive decisions because you're like, is this honoree of me? I know you align it and you're seeing that. That's what we stress all the time, finding the why, the core value behind it and is your action aligning with that. I think since I was young, doing the right thing has always been that's what you do. It also ends up with integrity. Honor and integrity are different things but most people might resonate with the more integrity side. If you're out of integrity with yourself and with someone else, it just eats you up, burns you up, it will steal your shadow and you're not the most full, effective, most powerful version of yourself because it's just corroding. What's interesting is when I think about being around, us being together and me adopting, I don't know what the right word is there, the habit of making bad decisions. I'll do it for this but when I'm on my own, I've noticed in the past I won't do it for myself. Why would I not kill off and get it done because I don't want to disappoint somebody else and tomorrow it's difficult, I don't feel like it but that is no way to live. That's like a hell because you're stuck in your own brain and especially if you don't have anybody accountable you just keep doing it more and more and you're enforcing that muscle of not making decisions quickly so you disappoint yourself because in really what you're telling yourself there I am worth it. I want to be honorable to myself because I know how it makes me feel which makes me feel strong, powerful, accomplished and it's funny because I've had all these achievements all the commissions and all the deals I've done and all the things I've done in my life and I think all those are the things that came when I was on point with myself and when it ever spiraled down it's when I made the decision against my own nature and I've enforced that so that spiraled down. I'm hoping that the audience can resonate I hope I'm not missing that but I see it in other people too so maybe you do as well. I can think of a story I have a podcast studio where we shoot our episodes for the following week on Tuesdays and it's January 16th and typically before we start shooting I always cook breakfast for Ewan and before the breakfast we do a cold plunge or a 5-7 mile run and you're probably not getting out because that's what society is telling you and I'm not saying you have to do this but I told Ewan we can do everything virtually that's the beautiful thing about the podcast you can do it from your home I can do it from my home and normally in the past it's freezing outside and you know what you told me? Nope, I'm going to be there and I remember thinking he just made a quick decisive decision so we could probably spend a lot of time on that but that just goes to show you his mission, his core values were greater than anything else and it made it easy for him to make that decision nobody was hurt and I'm not saying you have to do this but that's the power of making that decisive decision now, you could have gotten a wreck this morning then you would have reflected back on that was that the best decision now I just deal with what happens most likely not going to be injured car's probably going to get messed up I can get that fixed but I'd rather be here and it's more important for me to be here because I love this I enjoy it and it's for other people and if you do that then you become an unstoppable force and especially you surrounding yourself with guys like me and guys like you and guys in our tribe and community and level up and live the people that have leaned in they are seeing this more than ever they're manifesting this quick decisions and it makes it easier when you have the why you have the purpose and you make those quicker decisions and you learn from it moving forward so it's January of 2024 14 months ago in December of 2022 I was at a place in my life a successful 6 digit company and it was at a place where do I want to spend another year running this company as the CEO of the landscape company and I had a decision to make between doing that and partnering up with another landscape owner and joining partnerships and I spent several weeks we went over all the documentation we were just ready to pull the trigger but this was a 3 weeks in process yes a long time but this is the importance of you don't want to just make a decision because it has to be sustainable it has to be aligned with the purpose and why so I was able to spend those 3 weeks why do I want to partner up with this individual why do I want to do this for another 12 months when I got really honest with myself nothing stuck out to me nothing was going to be sustainable on keeping this business this was the final scenario in my 3rd week I remember it was cold we had a pathway in our community I was feeling good I had a fit aid I had music in my ears I wanted to take a 30 minute walk I said I'm going to pray to God I'm going to say God talk to me for the next 10-15 minutes I was in spirit it's depleting my energy my bandwidth, my creativity I'm thinking about it all the time I know this isn't going to be a fast decision but I need your direction I need your help I need your guidance I need your peace I need my comfort in this people were looking at me like I was crazy but because I was talking out loud it came to me and finally hit what I wanted 2023 to look like I was going to sell the landscape company I was not going to be partnering up I was going to be starting a coaching business to impact more people I said this is what I'm doing January 1st we have to do the podcast we have to do emails now we've evolved to a beautiful business we have our mastermind class I love crazy as soon as you said it I was like I'm coming you have so many people now other people are making decisions to back it up you set the playing field it's just awesome if I don't make that decision if I don't align it with my purpose the podcast doesn't happen you're not listening right now I'm still running a landscape company this could have failed miserably the decision could have failed miserably but because I was able to dissect and get to that 80% I was like let's do it I felt good about it I'm glad you made that decision this has been a joy I love every second of this in my life that might not have known you it's wild my preacher was like I didn't even know you knew I love this guy he's so good he's an older gentleman he's a young vitality what's up Dwight level up and live