Choices and making good decisions occur every day in your personal life, career, and business.
A poor decision or a poorly executed decision on any one of these layers can certainly have a profound effect on all the other layers of your personal onion. Being able to make strong decisions on some of life’s biggest questions and stick to them can infuse every part of your life with the kind of positive energy that serves as an almost contagious driving force.
Michael Charles is an expert on the team and leadership development as well as organizational effectiveness. Charles is a John Maxwell Certified trainer and often works as a speaker, as well as a coach for businesses and individuals. He enjoys sharing his insights on leadership that he has gained through years of experience. His primary vehicle for doing this is his website leadingwithintent.com
Michael Charles is also the CEO and founder of the Light The World Foundation. This charity organization’s mission is to inspire, educate, and empower the coming generation of leaders. His passion is fueled by a lifelong love of learning and years of helping companies and individuals find new ways to succeed.
What Is The Best Mentality For Making Powerful Decisions?
Chances are you have probably heard a cliché or two about how “Attitude Matters” in the course of your life. Sometimes it gets overused, causing some people to shrug it off. However, Charles doubles down on the importance of not only having a positive attitude but in staying around positive people and influences.
“Whether, you are a business owner, individual, or whoever you are, you have to make decisions!” Charles said. “What most people do is lock themselves into a system that prevents them from making the kind of decisions that will impact their lives in a positive way.”
Of course, every decision comes with a lot of questions. If you are facing a big decision right now, then chances are good that you are asking yourself if you have the skills. You might be wondering if you have the resources or if you can get the funding?
“Of course, you won’t have the skills! It’s a new idea! If you already had the skills it wouldn’t be a new idea. It’s something that is seeking to be birthed by you,” Charles stated.
Where Does The Confidence Come From To Make a Major Decision?
There seems to be this quirk in the human condition that causes us all at one time or another to be our own worst enemy. This phenomenon often rears its ugly head when we are faced with making a major decision.
Yet it also exists for many in a smaller scale, with the seemingly banal decisions we make every day. For some, it can create a self-reinforcing pattern causing us to back down too easily, or simply struggling to find the confidence to carry the decision through all the way to completion.
“What stops some people is that they say they don’t have the confidence, and that can also be a block for them,” said Charles. “The confidence needs to come from knowing that you had the idea. It means that there is a way to make it happen!”
“If you have a bunch of excuses ready, then chances are you are going to find a reason not to. But you need to focus and get started.”
Most people who are successful might not have the money at first, but they can find people who will invest. They might not have the skills, but they can learn them. You have to understand that there are resources out there for you to find them,” explained Charles.
“Business owners who fail, will look at it and say they don’t have the resources and they start to back down.”
How Do You Make The Leap?
“Every single major project I have done in my life, whether professional or personal; whether it’s me or with my wife, we say that once you have an idea, and once you decide, you become committed. You have to go out to try and found out how to make it happen,” said Charles.
Fear can be a major stumbling stone for a lot of people. Charles stresses that you need to develop a positive take-charge attitude. “Most People get scared about not having what they need. You have to take the idea and decide if you are going to do it or not.”
How To Nurture A Positive Attitude?
Michael Charles buys in wholeheartedly into the philosophy that positive energy is contagious. “When you have positive energy and ideas, guess what happens to you? It keeps coming like you have a download of ideas!”
Charles also notes that this stream of ideas doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It isn’t something that is conjured out of the ether. Instead, it is a product of increased awareness. “When you embrace positive energy and ideas you become more aware. At Leading With Intent, we teach people to be more aware of themselves and what they can do with their environment, and seeing it in a different way.”
“When you change your perspective and the way you see things, the things you look at change as well!
What Do You Do When You Hit Those Inevitable Challenges?
“Most people what they do after they make a decision, is they make a plan. They fall in love with the plan so much that they forget the goal. So, when things hit the fan they start to change the goal to fit the plan,” Charles explained.
“What they need to ask themselves is Why Am I Giving Up? There are other options. When I’m driving, I’m listening. When I’m sitting, I’m reading. You have to be on the move mentally, intentionally using your time.”
“When making a decision, instead of asking if you have the resources, people, skills or money, just flip it. When you have an idea you have to expect that you will need to find those things. If you are waiting for everything to just fall perfectly in line, it will never happen!”
- Listen to Michael Charles on Biz Blast Radio
