On our recent family vacation to the Canadian Rockies, we arrived in Banff around 3:00 in the afternoon. One of the places we wanted to visit during our time in Banff was Lake Louise. After checking into our hotel, we headed to the visitor center where we were told that the best times to get prime parking at Lake Louise were 7:30 in the morning and during the evening hours.

After calculating the necessary wake up time to arrive at Lake Louise by 7:30 a.m., we decided our best option was to go that evening. We got there a little after 7:00 and found a parking space near the front of the lot. We were delighted that we got to see beautiful Lake Louise without the volume of people that visit during peak hours.

We needed to make a rapid decision in order to execute our hassle-free evening visit to Lake Louise.

I have observed over the years that some of our most financially successful clients make quick decisions after receiving a baseline of information. I’m convinced that quick decision making will generally serve us better than delayed decision making.

Ultimately decision making is about the quality of the decisions we make; however, it’s rare that more time will provide enough clarity about the decision to significantly improve the quality of our decisions. The greater risk is that by delaying the decision we might lose the current opportunity that has been presented to us.

If we had procrastinated on our decision to visit Lake Louise that evening, we might have been frustrated with remote parking and large crowds the following day. As it turned out, we had an amazing time!

When have you benefited by making a rapid decision, or conversely, missed an opportunity by hesitating to decide?