Deciding vs Doing

The leadership guru John Maxwell once shared a story that he said his father Melvin once shared with him— a story that while seemingly simple, contains a very profound insight. “If there are five frogs sitting on a log,” Melvin asked his 9 year son, “and four of them decide to jump off, how many frogs are left on the log?” John confidently replied “one,” happy to engage in repartee with someone of his father’s intellectual stature. “Wrong,” his father responded. “If there are five frogs sitting on a log and four of them decide to jump off, there are still five frogs sitting on a log.” “How?’, his deeply stupefied and ego wounded son blurted out. “Because,” his wise father countered, “there is a difference between deciding and doing.”

After that conversation, Mr. Maxwell said that he never forgot the distinction. There are continents between deciding and doing. Neither are easy. Both are necessary. But they shouldn’t be confused with each other.

According to one definition, to decide means “to solve or conclude (a question, controversy, or struggle) by giving victory to one side. The English word decision comes from the latin root word cide, which means to kill. Hence, pesticide kills insects; patricide is to kill one’s father; fratricide is to kill one’s brother; and suicide is to kill one’s self. When I decide, I eliminate every option except one. This is why making decisions is often so difficult. Most of us have deliberately designed our lives to have as many choices as possible, and have an instinctive aversion to limitations of any sort. We mistakenly assume that more options result in more freedom, and prefer to postpone major decisions for as long as possible.

But decisions are inevitable. Eventually we have to narrow our career, relationship and financial goals—and doing so is not without pain, pressure, and the potential for regret. Moreover, deciding not to decide is also a decision. My mother calls this living by default. If you don’t make a decision, a decision will be made for you.

But just because you make a decision (or even if a decision is made for you), that does not mean you haven’t done anything. To paraphrase one writer, our decisions are like a king without an army. After the mind has decided on a course of action, the emotions must be rallied and the will must be engaged to perform the behaviors that will bring our decisions to pass. For example, you can decide to start exercising. But unless your emotions and will are in alignment, you will stay on the couch watching television and eating potato chips.

The transition from deciding to doing requires the energy to overcome inertia, which is one of the forces that conspire against our progress. Inertia (which Sir Issac Newton discovered as one of fundamental properties of physics) is the tendency of a body at rest to stay at rest (or a body in motion to stay in motion). That means no matter what you decide, the rest of the universe (you included) is perfectly content with the way things are! lol. To overcome this resistance requires stamina, resolve, commitment, perseverance, and discipline. It is difficult. But not impossible.

Let’s move from being deciders to doers. It isn’t the deciders who are blessed. It is the doers. In Psalm 1:1-3, the scripture reminds us that:

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.

Whatever they DO prospers—not whatever they DECIDE. All of us have drawers, cabinets and closets full of decisions. This year, let’s do something!