The fork in the road of life is always the decision we make whether to take the left or the right. The difference between success and failure is our ability to make the right decision quickly, effectively, efficiently, and often decisively. That skill can lead us to the penthouse or the outhouse of life.

The wise person recognizes that it would be impossible to be right all the time. To place yourself at that standard level or expectation level puts you immediately at odds with making wise and quick decisions. It is inherently unwise to assume or expect a perfect standard. This philosophy can paralyze even the best decision makers. In fact one could say that a standard level of perfection is folly at its core.

I have been fortunate, as I have described many times from the platform and in print, to be the son of Norm and Becky Zeller. My desire is to provide an environment of love and learning for my children Wesley and Annabelle that I experienced along with my two brothers.

As I have aged and matured I have recognized one detrimental aspect of the home environment that I grew up in and that was that a mistake was a terrible thing to make. The standard of perfection and extreme excellence was the mark in our home. I did not recognize until I was in my middle 20’s that making mistakes was part of human existence. I never felt they were allowed, accepted, or even encouraged in our home.

I am not making this point to sound like a "down and out, my parents crippled me for life" adult. That is certainly not the case. I owe all of my opportunities, success, blessing, and accomplishments to my parents. I am sharing an experience to help others understand the time one must invest personally to reprogram their mind back to a more human and reasonable standard of expectation and performance. We must encourage risk taking in the safe home environment for our children. We must encourage errors to be made because that is where learning takes place for most of us. We can read about it in books, but the real learning comes in applying what we have learned and what we think we know in the Petri dish of life out there.

If you have wisdom you will naturally make better decisions because of your level of discernment. You will also be able to take action quicker because of your ability to understand, evaluate, and consider all possible outcomes from the decision due to that wisdom. When I think of wisdom my mind turns to the book of Proverbs in the Bible. Proverbs was compiled and written by one of the wisest men of history, Solomon. He also happened to be one of the wealthiest as well. It is amazing how those two go hand in hand. If you have never read the book of Proverbs I urge you to do so. In Proverbs wisdom is talked about with reverence and honor. In Proverbs 3:13-16, paraphrased it states:

Joyful is the person who finds wisdom
For wisdom is more profitable than silver
Wisdom is more precious than rubies
She offers long life in her right hand and riches and honor in her left

In Proverbs 29:3 it says: The man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father.

From my vantage point wisdom is a pretty good deal. I might want to get me some of that. I established a habit a number of years ago from a discovery I made. In my daily routine I read a chapter of Proverbs a day. It fascinated me that there are 31 chapters in Proverbs and in most months 31 days of the month. Men, don’t miss chapter 31. It’s a description of a wife of noble character. If you are as blessed to have a wife like Solomon describes in that chapter, marrying her was the best decision you ever made in your life. I speak from personal experience as a man blessed enough to be married to a Proverbs wife.

To know what to do and then still not do it is neither wise nor efficient in terms of time use. Success comes to us through the application of knowledge, using the least amount of time to apply that knowledge. There are few people that wouldn’t argue that smoking cigarettes is obviously bad for one’s health. We could also make the logical case that smoking reduces the time we will live and probably reduce the quality of time we have in our life. Even though these, dare I say, facts are incontestable we have millions of people in the United States and around the world that engage in smoking daily.

The evidence is overwhelming, so when will these people make wise and quick decisions and then act on them. To know and not to do is really not to know.

What is it that you have been considering doing for some time?
What action would you really like to take but haven’t yet?
What’s really holding you back?
What’s the worst thing that would happen if you take it?
What are the odds the worst thing would happen?
If it did would you live through it?

For many people it’s time to break through this void of wasted time, space, and thought and take action.