The importance of decision-making: An advanced magical practice
Okay, maybe making decisions isn’t technically “advanced,” but for today I’m saying it’s advanced since so few people do keep their word. ...
(Especially in the spiritual space with all our higher chakra-focused un-grounded hobbies...)
I see all over the internet the inability to make decisions and the inability to follow through.
Which is ironic because the sacredness of the word — your word — is reflected in so many esoteric traditions. It may even be why affirmations aren’t working for you...
Because, after you’ve made and broken enough promises, your word is meaningless at this point.
(Also: not following through on decisions and promises can weaken your brand voice, turn potential customers off of you, and generally make delegating and working with your team unnecessarily difficult. It’s just bad business).
To make a decision to stick to your word is a highly spiritual practice but you rarely see it advocated for in this day and age.
Distractions are everywhere. Options are everywhere. So to make a decision and not stick to it is so easy.
To change your mind is so easy.
But imagine the energy behind it…
The magic of Focus
I would say that one of the most magically powerful times in my life was when I was in high school. I was so hyper-focused on getting into a specific college that my focus was unwavering. I made alllllll my decisions based around this one goal. All of my energy was going into it.
While friends partied I didn’t because I knew it would jeopardize getting into college if I was caught drinking underage. I didn’t experiment. I chose hobbies that aligned me with becoming a more attractive college candidate.
A few years later, after I had gotten in and started attending said college, my magical juju seemed to have dissipated.
At this point, as a third year student, realizing that there are so many options available for my future... I wasn’t prepared for life after my ultimate goal was achieved. I had no idea what to do. I didn't know what direction I should go in.
I was good at so many things, but my power of Focus was diluted through a lack of vision and decision-making.
If you are someone who has a hard time making decisions, it’s time to think really hard on this. And it’s probably time to quit the habit of indecision…
Because it’s just a habit to not make decisions quickly and not keep them after you make them.
To make decisions and then follow through with them, you’re strengthening your will & strengthening your word.
Esoteric traditions + keeping your word
In the Hawaiian esoteric tradition called Huna, the Kapuna who specialized in “sorcery” would be so powerful with their word that their word was law. They said it and it was so.
You see this in Western Hermetic traditions as well: “And so it is.”
You say it and it is so. It’s the marking of a powerful word.
More than just decision-making, this practice is about committing to your word. In doing so, you give your words power.
In my Western upbringing, even in an agnostic home, I knew the story of Genesis. Most of us do. “And God said let there be light, and there was light.” It was his word that commanded the result. Through speaking it, it became so.
We see this even in modern day. We call how words are written out “spelling” — reverberating the wisdom that our words cast spells.
Toltec wisdom teaches that our words hold immense power. To “be impeccable with your word” [1]
In the sacred Vedic text Satapatha Brahmana, the creation of the world was said to be:
“In the beginning was God with power through speech. God said, ‘May I be many … May I be propagated. And by his will expressed through subtle speech, he united himself with that speech and became pregnant.” [2]
You see it again in Kundalini Yoga, where Yogi Bhajan spoke extensively on this.
“When you speak, it should be as if Infinity is speaking.” ― Yogi Bhajan
And I have a strong feeling that if I kept searching we would keep finding echoes of this same idea.
Manifest your world
For myself, I was turned off to the power of words through its oversimplification in Law of Attraction and New Age teachings.
You hear how affirmations are going to change your life from every Guru. You try it on for a few weeks (or years) and you know something is missing.
That sour taste hopefully won’t spoil the deeper truth and power of the message. That the action of keeping your word is powerful and…
By making decisions and taking actions to back up that decision, you construct the world you’re living in.
How to start setting goals
This gets a little muddled and murky when we start to apply it in everyday life though.
Keeping your word sounds so easy.
It can be easy enough to trust your intuition, but becomes much harder when it’s about follow-through. Because when we make decisions and set goals, our subconscious patterns are triggered and we get flared up.
You’ve heard of that “if you shoot for the moon you may just reach the stars.” You hear that Big Impossible goals that make you want to barf are the ones you need to be making...
But is that really helpful for where you’re at?
I’ve done the practice of setting enormous goals before and in most cases it hasn’t been useful for me. The goals were so outrageous that it scared me off, put me in an emotional tailspin, or just confused me for what the next step was.
I know not everyone is like this. Some people are TURNED ON by megawatt goals.
But it’s okay if you’re not one of those people right now.
And in many cases smaller, more realistic goals are REALLY what you need to get the ball rolling. You can’t really make happen what you don’t think is possible or realistic.
And if you don’t have a track record of making things happen for yourself then it’s even harder.
So start small. Set goals you truly believe could happen if you work for them. Get into the habit of goal-setting and strengthen your ability and faith in actually keeping your word.
Learning to trust yourself
Most women I know have an issue with deep self confidence.
We second-guess ourselves. We question our decisions, big and small. What we wore to the party. What we said to the new acquaintance. Our life direction, our career path, when we should have kids (if ever.)
A boost in confidence comes from teaching ourselves that we can trust ourselves. And in the very physical realms that means doing what we say we're going to do and keeping our word to ourselves and others.
It can start as simply as doing the dishes every night or going to the gym once per week. By showing up on time to a coffee date. Eventually it looks like setting goals and hitting them, bigger and bigger.
But I think this is a fun contemplation:
What if your goals are so big that it doesn’t make logical sense for you to hit them. But after such a steady practice of keeping your word there’s an elevation from what’s “realistic” because you say that it’s so, as your words hold power in and of themselves.
Decision-making in your business
Looping this all back around to decision-making and your magical business, and leaving the room in my head of multi-dimensional possibilities… I invite you to the challenge.
What would you do differently if you believed your words held true power?
How would your goals change if you believed that any goal you set would come true?
Ready to take your business to the next level?
For a lot of online businesses, launches are the time when an endless list of (really important!) decisions have to be made. You’re launching your new program, course, or membership, and you want to make sure it’s awesomely successful…
But with all the other planning you have to do, the little details and decisions can easily slip through the cracks.
Our 2 Hours to Launch project plan template will help you plan a wildly successful and magical launch, without the burnout.
None of the usual chaos and stress of a lunch. No endless decision making and constantly over-thinking whether you made the right choice (and going back on your word!).
It’s an easy to use, step-by-step guide so that you can fully plan your next launch in just two hours.
Click here to see how 2 Hours to Launch can revitalize your launches.
References/further reading:
[1] Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements
[2] Sir John Woodroffe’s translation of Sata-paha Brahmana: Garland of Letters
