I recently finished my twelve-week mastermind deep dive on my favorite book by Napoleon Hill, “Think and Grow Rich”. There’s one particular chapter called Organized Planning, that’s all about leadership. They share the 11 major attributes of leadership, the 10 major causes of failure in leadership, and the 31 major causes of failure in life and/or business. There were three particular areas I’d like to touch on today.
Number four in the major attributes of leadership was the definiteness of decision. Of the 31 major causes of failure, number eight was procrastination, and number 13 was a lack of well-defined decision. As you can see, they somewhat merge.
To be a successful leader, we need to be decisive. If we don’t want to sabotage our success, we need to be decisive, because procrastination and indecision are like twin brothers lurking in the shadows of every man and woman just ready to trip you up and sabotage any future success. Now, some of us may think procrastination isn’t that bad, or not having the ability to be decisive and belaboring the decision isn’t that bad. It just might be an unconscious habit. However, let me share something, you need to conquer that habit. If you want to be a leader, you need to be decisive. A lack of decisiveness shows a lack of confidence, and no follower wants to follow a leader who lacks confidence.
Think of it this way. Let’s say you had a big flood in your kitchen. You mopped and dried it up. Hopefully, you had a restoration company come out, and apply the proper dryers to do it right. But maybe you didn’t. Maybe you just wiped it up yourself and then a couple of months later, you noticed a little mold underneath the sink. It’s a little, however you think nothing of it. That mold continues to grow. That’s exactly what procrastination and indecisiveness is. It’s mold lurking in the background.
Now, months may go by, you’re feeling tired, and sluggish, eyes are watering. You think you have allergies. I have a client who had black mold in his lungs because he told everybody there was mold in the building and everyone said he was wrong. He ended up getting very sick and almost died. Fortunately, he recovered. He’s a successful businessman now, healthy, and takes care of himself physically and mentally. He’s a rock star in business and a great father. Think about that. Procrastination and indecision are not just little bad habits, they are success killers. Words of encouragement; If any of you out there struggle with these two areas, you must master them.
Being indecisive is a decision to procrastinate. So how about you just procrastinate on procrastination and make a decision? When you make a decision, it’s either right or wrong. You’ll know the result, you’ll adjust, you’ll shift, and you’ll move forward. If you want to be successful in life, indecision and procrastination is the mold lurking in the background ready to get into your lungs and take you down. They’re lurking in the background of every person alive. Conquer those two and you will be successful. Let them grow, it just might take you down. Something to think about.
COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, global speaker, and published author. He is a proud Action Coach Franchise partner as well as the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice. Businesscoachmichaeldill.com