How many times have you used the old “I want to think it over” line as a handy method of getting rid of a pesky salesperson?

How often have you used the excuse “I need to discuss this with my…” rather than make a decision regarding something you want but are unsure about spending the money right now?

If you are like most of us, these two lines are front and centre in our heads each time we are presented with information that will require us to make a decision and we don’t feel comfortable committing to the price tag attached to that decision.

If there was no cost involved we would unquestionably say yes but that nagging, uncomfortable feeling that often precedes a decision to spend money looms large inside us enabling us to call upon either of these two well rehearsed lines.

Most often when we use these lines to pave the way for our escape from an uncomfortable decision the result is exactly the same as if we had said no.

Life gets in the way and we rarely, if ever, go back and say yes once we have fled the scene in order to “think it over” and “discuss it with my…”

From personal experience I can attest to the fact I have used these lines on numerous occasions, almost as if these were automatic responses just like the way we respond with the words “I’m just looking” when a store clerk approaches us with that dreaded question, “Can I help you?”

By regularly using these two lines we run the risk of training ourselves to view these statements as our default which means we might be denying ourselves many opportunities for growth, enhanced success and personal enjoyment.

The Habit of Being Decisive provides a means of intervention which may well allow us time to conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis and evaluate the gains to be derived against the fee to be paid rather than simply making a decision based purely on cost.

In my day job I frequently make presentations to prospective clients and, consequently, am no stranger to hearing one or both of the commonly used lines we have been discussing.

I have learned to not placidly accept these but instead to encourage my potential client to make a decision or, at the very least, to make a commitment as to a date and time by which they will decide and get back to me.

My purpose in doing this is not to be a “hard sell salesperson” but rather to inspire my clients to closely examine the whole picture – not just the dollar is involved – before making a decision which may well play a very long term role in the quality of their lives.

I have learned from personal experience the value to be derived from The Habit of Being Decisive and have trained myself to never be dissuaded by a seemingly high price before assessing all the benefits to be gained by paying the fee or making the investment.

This does not imply throwing impulse control to the wind and spontaneously saying yes to every offer with scant thought given to the benefits to be derived.

On the contrary, The Habit of Being Decisive is a tool that will force us to set aside the natural biases that get in the way of good decision-making and allow us to methodically and pragmatically make decisions that are, at best, long-term interests without being deterred by short-term pain.

Often, having compared the benefits to the cost, the best choice is a “no” decision but at least when we make this decision we can do so with the full knowledge that we are not acting from the conditioned response that years and years of using those lines may have instilled within us.

And those are good decisions to live with.

Let’s make a habit of meeting like this.