A close friend called me today to about a job opportunity she felt would be a good match for her husband’s skills and experience. The job was in southern West Virginia and they currently live in central Pennsylvania. She began by asking for my help in updating her husband’s résumé, but within minutes she was describing to me how overwhelmed she felt with the impact of a decision they had not yet made.

How would they sell their current home in this tight real estate market? How would they ever pack all the things they have accumulated over the years? How could she convince her 78-year-old mother to move (her mother has always lived with her). What would she say to her sisters, who would never approve of the move? And her husband’s business – if he declared bankruptcy to dissolve the business and all of their debts, how would they ever get a loan to buy property in West Virginia? Before long, she had talked herself out of making a change.

My friend is not neurotic – but like many, many people contemplating a job or career change, she made the grand leap from applying for a position to accepting the job and dramatically altering her life. She created a scenario in her mind, and until she could play it all out and identify solutions to every potential outcome, she could not move ahead.

I see this quite frequently in my business. Professionals, unhappy with their current job, company and or lives come to me because they need and want to change. Yet, they are so overwhelmed by the possible fall-out from their decision - they fail to decide. They wait - until they have all the details worked out, all the pieces to the puzzle, all the correct responses to the unknowns.

My personal and professional mantra is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen."

As I continue to mature and learn to trust my "higher power" I see the powerful truth of that statement unfold in my own life and those who have the courage to "decide."” When we waffle and send out mixed messages about what we want – the universe does not know what to deliver. Yet, when we are firm about what we want and need – when we make the decision - somehow things begin to fall in place.

How about you? What non-decision is holding you hostage? What mixed messages are you sending out to the universe? When will you decide so the universe can conspire to make it happen?