Once heard Chris Widener talk on a SUCCESS Magazine CD. During the talk he posed this question: "What hard decision are you not making?" He went on to say that by delaying our decisions, we are costing ourselves precious time. If on the other hand, we make the decision (and it turns out to be the wrong decision), we may still have time to correct it.

I've shared before that my first breakthrough with regards to decision making came when a friend offered that very few of our decisions carry such dire consequences that they can't be undone. He said, the best approach was to gather enough information to support your decision and then make a decision. If that decision turns out to be wrong, you can make another decision.

Decision making and problem solving are critical skills to success in business and life.

Here are 5 Steps we share with our executive coaching clients that will help you improve both:

1. Always think on paper. Begin by writing out the problem and then deciding if there are any other underlying problems. Always question your assumptions.
2. Decide what result you are striving to achieve or avoid.
3. Identify as many solutions as you can, and then decide the best solution.
4. Make a decision and then monitor to see if the decision worked.
5. If your decision turns out to be the wrong one, be prepared to say, "I was wrong, I made a mistake, I changed my mind." And then make another decision.

From time to time, we will make the wrong choices and decisions. The key is to minimize the expense of those wrong decisions, quickly admit your mistakes and change course for an alternative decision/solution.

So, what hard decisions are you not making? Will you commit to make those decisions today? Go ahead, "Eat That Frog!" (make that hard decision) and if it turns out to be the wrong one, you'll still have time to eat another one!