🎥 Sunday Reset With Steven | August 31

The hidden tax you wish you dealt with.

It’s not financial.

It’s not legal.

It’s decision debt.

Every choice you delay, every option you leave hanging, accrues interest.

And you pay it in momentum.

Last week, I was invited to a private roundtable with board leaders shaping how governance must evolve in the age of AI.

Behind closed doors, one truth became clear:

Decisions don’t stall for lack of data. They stall because of fear.

Fear of being wrong.

Fear of losing face.

Fear of moving without certainty.

But here’s the paradox:

Waiting doesn’t protect you; it costs you.

Ray Dalio says:

“He who lives by the crystal ball will eat shattered glass.”

Clarity isn’t found in predicting every outcome. It’s built through principled decisions, tested and adapted in motion.

And Mel Robbins puts it even sharper:

“Hesitation kills momentum. The gap between thought and action is where fear lives.”

I Learnt This:

3 Ways to Cut Decision Debt:

1️⃣ Time-box your choices. Five seconds, five minutes, five days. Just decide!

2️⃣ Default to principles, not perfection. Dalio reminds us: principles > predictions.

3️⃣ Take the first reversible step. Jeff Bezos calls them “two-way doors.” If it’s not permanent, move!

Here’s the truth:

The longer you wait, the heavier the debt.

But the moment you act, you reclaim momentum.

📚 Two books that shaped how I decide:

1. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie - gifted to me by my brother Joe on my 18th birthday (a few decades ago!)

2. Managing Up and Across, by HBR. It’s a practical guide to influence when decisions stall.

Clarity doesn’t come from waiting.

It comes from movement.

So this week, make the call.

Clear the debt.

Step lighter.

Keep growing. Keep leading.

Until next Sunday.

Let’s get it!

Steven