Have you ever come to a place in your life where you knew you needed to make a decision? Maybe it was a decision to change your career, develop healthier eating habits, implement a new marketing plan for your business, or begin an exercise program. But it was a specific POINT in time. A decision point.
A decision point as defined in the DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms is in part “…..as a point in space and time when you are …. making a key decision concerning a specific course of action.” But what stands between us and going through with our decision? Author Steven Pressfield said, “Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance”.
It should come as no surprise to you that procrastination is one of the most common manifestations of Resistance. We either put off making any decision or fail to follow through with any decision point.
It should also be no surprise that the military has a specific process they use for making decisions. The “Military Decision Making Process”, or MDMP, used by the United States Army is a seven step process. I believe we can use these same steps when making decisions about our life, our health, our careers, our families. In brief the steps are:
#1 Mission
#2 Analysis
#3 Develop
#4 Analyze
#5 Compare
#6 Approve
#7 Produce
At the decision point, you choose what steps you will take to begin this new mission, this new direction you will take with your business or your life, and to plan to defeat Resistance no matter the cost. You have heard it said, if you want to change your life, change your mind.
But before you actually change your mind, you have to make a decision to change your mind. There is specific point in time when you know you must make different decisions. This military term, “decision point”, means when you make the choice to take the appropriate action to achieve success and that action - if carried out – could alter your future forever.
Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing more detail about each of these steps. What about you? Do you think using the MDMP process could help you with a decision you need to make?
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