We high performers—the goal oriented, get-it-done, “don’t believe me just watch” crowd—are great at going after what we want and whatever we make our aim. That’s what makes us so successful, right?

But there’s a problem. In the midst of all of our disciplined achievement, we have a hang up that actually stands in the way of us reaching our FULL potential. That problem? The three-word statement “I don’t know.”

Why is this a problem? For a start, “I don’t know” firmly roots us in indecisiveness. It affixes our vantage point and keeps us from making forward progress. Another problem is that this statement gets us all in our heads making up rationale in support or rejection of the options we think we have. We clamor for information that will help us to “know.”

But hold on, you say, this is what we’ve been taught to do! As professionals effective decision making depends on robust analysis of alternatives based on available data. Going through that process allows for decisions to be made with an awareness of the benefits and risks associated with each option and a choice to be made accordingly. This is a proven process and one that I am not advocating to be abandoned. What I’m asking you to suspend is the application of this process ad nauseam, when you have enough “information”—including what your gut is telling you. Especially when facing decisions related to your success.

When “I don’t know” spreads into our individual career management efforts—or lack thereof. This is where inaction as a result of indecisiveness REALLY bites.

When facing career path questions, indecisiveness consumes our confidence, blurs our view of and how we use our talents, and it can thoroughly engulf our sense of purpose and potential for happiness.

And THAT is serious business!

When I meet people and tell them about my work helping clients make deliberate choices and to actively create careers on their terms, they often give me various forms of some common “I don’t know” statements. These examples illustrate how sneaky (and sinister!) indecisiveness can be.

  • “I really want to get more fulfillment out of my work, but I just don’t know how to go about it”
  • “I keep thinking I’ll look for a new job but I don’t know what I want.”
  • “I don’t know what my real passion and I don’t want to try something else if it’s still not ‘it’”

What’s so fascinating here is the actual decisiveness that exists at the root of all of these statements. Underneath all of these there is a fundamental inclination, desire, or dare I say, a “knowing” about what the next most important move. There is a decision hidden in all of these. A decision that would move the person forward likely into something important.

There is a choice ready to be made, but “I don’t know” stops it. So I’m calling on you to turn the tables and stop “I don’t know-ing” altogether.

What I know to be true is that often the things we claim most fervently that we “don’t know” are the things we actually know more clearly than anything else. Yet indecisiveness reigns. We bury the valuable pearl that is what’s real for us under all the “shoulds,” “what ifs,” “not nows,” and “if onlys” and we think that when we have more data or gain more input that we will know.

Sure it’s frightening and it feels unnerving to think that what we’re feeling compelled to decide might actually be what we KNOW we will do, but SHEESH, is the alternative not more terrifying?

Is it more comfortable to continue going to jobs that don’t challenge us, accepting working at levels below our capability, and dragging through the week on auto-pilot?

What would you do if you let yourself know what you already know…If you no longer used those three words together words?

Stop telling yourself that you don’t know! And start creating success on YOUR terms!