Today's topic is Decision, which is the name of chapter 7 in The NEW Think and Grow Rich. If I were to have a subtitle for that chapter, it would be Courage. That's because meaningful decisions require courage.

The centerpiece of this chapter is a political instance that Napoleon Hill originally included, and that I left in when I updated the book. I thought it communicated the point very, very well.

This instance involves a few plotters, a few subjects of a country who, by any definition today, would be called out and identified as terrorists. They'd quite likely be jailed without a trial and maybe even killed without a trial. They were subjects of the Crown, and they decided they didn't like their own government—and they were going to have a revolution!

By the way, that's the American Revolution and the American Founding Fathers that I'm talking about. According to the Crown, these were rebels, these were terrorists. According to the terrorists, they were freedom fighters. Hmmm, you always have that issue. But here's what they also knew…and this is something you won't find in your normal business decisions: they knew that the moment they decided and made an announcement of their decision that the war was on and they were inside the gun sights of the Crown.

They knew that they were risking their life and sacred honor; they knew they were risking their welfare and the welfare of their families, their material possessions, their bank accounts. The hungry government could come and take all their money. They knew all this! Yet they still made the decision. It was important enough for them to make a decision and act on it.

Use that as a metaphor. You're not often going to be making decisions that require you to actually face the threat of death and destruction at the edge of a well-armed government. But you are making decisions that determine your wellbeing in this world, you definitely are!

So have the gravity in your mind to recognize that. You're either deciding to be what you want, who you want, to do what you want, to contribute—and it's for you and all your family, maybe your community. Or, by not making the decisions to do what you know to do and want to do, you're deciding that you don't want those things. You are deciding that you are a coward. You are deciding that it's more comfortable to be uncomfortable than it is to be courageous.

So that's what I wish for you. Act like you have something at risk, because you DO! Like with the Revolutionaries – you’ve got everything on the line. It’s not consequences that are different – it’s time frame. Obviously, revolutionaries are playing in the fast lane, and your decisions are slow burn – like the steady encroachment of cancer to the person who smokes. Yet the day will come you’ll be at risk-or-reward from the decisions you made…

The decisions you make today determine your tomorrow.

Make a decision; and when you make a decision, make it so that you act on your decisions.

Steel yourself… Jump! Outside your comfort zone!

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