At a university, a professor asked his students, “If there are four birds on a tree and three of them decided to fly away, how many are left on the tree?”

Everyone answered, “One.”

They were surprised when one student disagreed and said, “Four birds remain.”

This caught everyone’s attention. The professor asked him, “How so?”

The student replied, “You said that they decided to fly, but you didn’t say they actually flew. Making a decision doesn’t mean taking action.”

And indeed, that was the correct answer. This story is an allegory for people like us or people we know. How many times have you heard someone make remarks like these?

“I’ve decided to go to college.”

“I think I’m going to change jobs.”

“I’m going to write a book someday.”

“I want to buy a new car.”

“We plan to go on vacation.”

“We’re going to have a baby when we get enough money saved.”

And here’s what happens. It’s now three years later and the person never went to college. Six months have passed and she’s still at the same job. After months of going to car lots, they have not yet chosen which car to buy. The ones who said they’re planning to go on vacation are still planning. The couple believes that the time is not yet financially right to have a baby.

Of course, there are always excuses, and some are valid, but procrastinators procrastinate and dreamers dream. Putting any significant decision into action involves risk. There might be an avalanche of more reasons to not do it, than there are to do it.

Being afraid the decision will result in failure or disappointment rages like a flood into our minds. What if I go to college and can’t get a good job after I owe thousands of dollars in tuition loans? What if I hate the new job more than the one that I left? What if I start a book, but can’t figure out what I should write next? What if the new car has mechanical problems after I spent so much money to buy it? What if it rains every day on our Caribbean vacation? What if we get pregnant now, but we can’t afford the expense?

There are times when decision-making brings uncertainty to a much simpler choice. The other day I sat behind a car in the drive-up lane at a fast food restaurant. I watched her and her passenger change their minds again and again about what they wanted to order. From what I could hear, the conversation went something like this.

Driver: I’ll take the Number 3 meal.

Passenger: You sure you want the fried chicken sandwich? You told me you didn’t like it from here.

Driver: Yeah, then change my order to the Number 1 meal, but instead of the fries, I’ll take the fruit. Oh, hold on. Give me the fries, but I want to upgrade the drink to a large size.

Passenger: We have a long drive ahead of us and you hate to stop to go to the bathroom.

Driver: Right again. Keep it medium size.

Then the passenger changed her order a few times, too.

Once it was my turn, I voiced my order quickly. I drove up behind the other car and the two ladies wanted to change their order still another time, but the clerk at the window said no. Orders must be placed at the screen. They huffed and puffed, made a few nasty comments, took their orders and drove away.

Indecision paralyzes the mind. I’ve been there. Indecision often results in no decision.

Do we trust our heart or our mind when we make decisions? Perhaps to a fault, I use my emotions more than my reasoning. Take the subject of when it’s a good time for a couple to have a baby. The rational decision is to when the money is right and the bills have been paid down.

The reality is that time might never come about. A 2023 study by Lending Tree estimated that the annual cost of raising a child has climbed to $21,681 a year and $389,000 over 18 years.

Throw these figures in the faces of young married couples today and they will learn that having enough money earned and saved to have a child is most likely never. That makes it an emotional decision. After all, isn’t a child supposed to born out of love and not from fiscal responsibility?

President Theodore Roosevelt said, “In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.

Of course, we all make bad decisions, but making no decision keeps us stuck in one place and if we can’t make decisions about much of anything, then what we have to realize is that the goal of improving the satisfaction in our lives could be lost.

Author Roy T. Bennett wrote, “You are not a victim of the world, but rather the master of your own destiny. It is your choices and decisions that determine your destiny.”

So, if you are one of those four birds in the tree that has decided to fly away with the others, are you still sitting on a branch or are you soaring high through the clouds?

Email Rich Strack at richiesadie11@gmail.com