_{Photo by Serkan Göktay}

In this super-capitalistic, super-action-oriented world of ours, we are primed at a very young age to make a move. To take an immediate step. Always on the move. Moving from one project to the other. Decision after decision. Yes, yes, yes. Always in pursuit of dividends. It’s the hustle. It’s the bustle. It is how the world is wired. Yet, the simple act of stopping and taking a second or two can break barriers. This is what Donald Marcus Welch touches upon a bit in The Love I Thought I Knew.

How Waiting Leads to Good Decisions

Global culture prizes speed and dedication over all else, especially where it concerns work and finances. Everyone wants to get straight to the point, no questions asked. Dive into your job. Dive into romance. Dive into whatever else. There is no thinking involved; just take the leap. This approach to life sometimes garners wondrous results–spontaneous and memorable ones, yes, but more often than not, what comes out is something that simply pushes you back to square one. That doesn’t really make for a good portfolio, does it?

_{Photo by JÉSHOOTS}

Taking a quiet moment can be powerful. Deliberating and just thinking things through can be electrifying. What people continue to overlook is that the process is as important as the choice.

Taking a Second Guess Despite the Noise

Making a good decision can be very difficult when we are constantly being surrounded by stimuli–hear this, read this, see this, taste this, touch this, etc. We are in the eye of a cyclone, and we have to decide whether or not it’s worth it to reach out. The deluge of everything, the many things happening around us, can mess up how we make decisions. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack that’s constantly shaking!

When we are making decisions, especially on the fly, our neurons are blazing, racing through our brains, making the best analysis they can given the time and the information. The chaos brewing in the mind often leads to impulsive choices. And taking a minute to breathe and really go over your options–if only for one time–can be extremely beneficial.

Taking a Second Guess: The Benefits of Taking Time

Inside pauses, there are spaces made that allow for clarity and insight. If you’re making a decision, it helps when you are inside one. By taking a pause, you are centering yourself and reducing the chances of getting overloaded with stress and anxiety. When that happens, your mind clears a bit, and you are in a better position to make a decision. The quiet of the moment that comes with taking your time also helps you focus on which details are important. From that position, you can see your situation more objectively and possibly identify potential blind spots.

_{Photo by Ron Lach}

Split-second decision-making greatly taxes the limits of your rationality, overshadowing or pushing down your intuition. This can have terrible results. Whenever decisions are being made, both your rational thoughts and your gut instincts should be weighed. As such, when pausing, you balance things out.

Taking a Second Guess: The Art of Patience

When we look at the world and the people in it, acting and making moves all in a quick second, it’s easy to assume that they’re all just going by instinct. That’s not true. Well, not necessarily. Your assumptions come from a very limited set of information. What happens inside their heads may have been quite thorough and comprehensive. They might have already deliberated somewhere without you looking. Regardless, you don’t need to be hasty. Haste makes waste, as they say.

Thus, patience is a very valuable quality to have. Learning to rein in your impulses and not act on the first step helps cultivate a more mindful and intentional approach to living. It also has the added benefit of increasing the quality of your decisions. Be patient with the world, and the world will respond accordingly. Not everything has to be a rat race, and moving forward with that will only make life much more fulfilling.

Donald Marcus Welch’s The Love I Thought I Knew is a book primarily about what it means to be loyal and to be in love with someone. It’s a treatise on being patient and finding the time to really think about love. Click here to order a copy now.