Like positivity and negativity, the word "decision" carries a very influential and telling backstory. There is more to it than meets the eye. And, like the two often-used words above, I learned one thing about the word "decision" that changed my understanding of its meaning forever.

First, a question for you. What is an incision?

Well we all know that. It's a cut. We understand exactly what it is because we hear it much more rarely. We generally hear it in a hospital during an operation - or on a TV show depicting such.

How does that work? Well, you know how if you say a word 30 times straight it starts to lose its meaning? The same thing can happen with words we hear much more often than others -- take "decision" vs. "incision."

When we hear a word frequently, its meaning can start to grow fuzzy around the edges. Its life force can start to bleed out in various directions. This is partly because everyone has their own understanding of what words mean, and their own idiosyncratic way of using them. The more people add their own meaning to this word you hear every day, the more possible meanings and connections this word has in your mind. Little bits of tangential information attach themselves to the word in your mind.

Like a freshly laundered shirt magnetizing lint, and hairs, and any other particles floating by.

I digress. All that is to say, the word "decision" had gotten a little fuzzy for me.

That's until I discovered that it shares the same root as the word "incision" - which is, "to cut." The prefix is all that's different.

As I've mentioned here before, I grew up in a family where analysis paralysis was a sport. Making a decision was a marathon, not a sprint. With so many options, and so many potential outcomes, how could you safely and wisely make the best choice?

It became almost impossible to just make a decision.

Until I realized the point. The whole point of a making decision is to cut off other potential futures, potential avenues. A decision, at its most fundamental level, is a cutting point.

Suddenly, making a decision was okay. Sure, I was cutting off other potential things. That was the point.

Giving something up can be hard. But rather than facing that knowledge with fear, I came to instead use it as motivation. Suddenly, every decision provided motivation to invest more into the future created by that decision. It boils down to this: if I'm giving something up, which I am, I'd better be getting something in return.

This had a world of ramifications for my productivity, judgment, agency, ability to act quickly - doing the right thing at the right time.

One little piece of understanding changed so much.

This, incidentally, is one of the reasons I love words so damn much.