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WHEN YOU’RE A CLEANER . . . . . . You make decisions, not suggestions; you know the answer while everyone else is still asking questions.

Trust yourself. Decide.

Every minute, every hour, every day that you sit around trying to figure out what to do, someone else is already doing it.

While you’re trying to choose whether to go left or right, this way or that way, someone else is already there.

While you’re paralyzed from overthinking and overanalyzing your next move, someone else went with his gut and beat you to it.

Make a choice, or a choice will be made for you.

Most people don’t want to make decisions. They make suggestions, and they wait to see what everyone else thinks, so they can say, “It was just a suggestion.” They know the right answer, but can’t act because if something goes wrong, they’ll have to take responsibility and then they can’t blame anyone else. Meanwhile, someone else is going to make a decision, and when it works, he’s getting all the credit. And maybe the choice he made isn’t one that works for anyone but him, but since no one else took charge, too bad for everyone else.

A Cleaner makes decisions because there’s no chance in the world he’s going to let anyone else make a decision for him. He may ask  your opinion and add it to everything else he knows, but he’s not going to do what anyone else tells him; he’s still going to follow his own instincts. And once he decides, it’s set in stone; he doesn’t care what anyone else thinks of his choice, and he’s going to live with the outcome.

He decides, and then he acts.

Instincts don’t recognize positive or negative. There’s only a situation, your response, and an outcome. If you’re ready for anything, you’re not thinking about whether it’s a good situation or a bad situation, you’re looking at the whole picture. And if you are thinking about it, you’re out of the Zone, distracted and wasting energy and emotion instead of focusing only on what you have to do. Thinking doesn’t achieve outcomes, only action does.

Prepare yourself with everything you’ll need to succeed, then act. You don’t need a hundred people to back you up and be your safety net. Your preparation and your instincts are your safety net.

You suddenly get a great idea, something completely comes alive in your mind, you mention it to a couple people . . . and they stare at you blankly. Suddenly you lose all your enthusiasm. Why? It’s still the same idea you loved a few hours ago. What happened?

Stop thinking.

good things come to those who work. I understand the value of not rushing into things—you want to be quick, not careless—but you still have to work toward a result, not just sit back and wait for something to happen. You can’t wait. The decision you don’t make on Monday will still be waiting for you on Tuesday, and by then two new decisions will have to be dealt with, and if you still don’t make those decisions, you’ll have three more on Wednesday. Pretty soon, you’re so overwhelmed by everything you still haven’t dealt with that you become completely paralyzed and can’t do anything.

Meanwhile, as you sit back doing nothing because you’re afraid to make a mistake, someone else is out there making all kinds of mistakes, learning from them, and getting to where you wanted to be. And probably laughing at your weakness.

And when you do finally force yourself to make a decision, what do you choose? Almost always, you go back to your first reaction, the first thing you thought of when the whole process began. You already knew. Why didn’t you just trust yourself the first time?

You can’t rely on others to jump up and make your dreams happen. They have their own dreams, they’re not worrying about yours. People might be willing to help if they can, but ultimately, it’s on you. Get the best people around you, know your strengths and weaknesses, and trust others to do what they do best. But in the end, it’s still your responsibility. Make a plan, and execute.

What’s your plan? Everything starts with a simple thought. Every idea, every invention, every plan, every creation . . . it started with a thought. But to bring the thought to life, you have to put a plan together. Starting a workout, training for a sport, launching a business . . . you can just think about it, or you can create the plan that will get you there. Be realistic: How much time do you have? How much time will you commit? Is it going to be a priority in your schedule, or are you going to fit it in around your other commitments? Make a plan that truly reflects your goals and interests, and you’ll be more likely to execute. Why pretend you’re going to work out every single day when you know you’re only going to do it three times a week? You make a choice and stand by it.

You don’t become unstoppable by following the crowd, you get there by doing something better than anyone else can do it, and proving every day why you’re the best at what you do.

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