The Man MakesWatch what a man does when it is expensive. That is the only data that counts.
A wise man watches before he weds himself to anything — a deal, a verdict, a man. He is not slow. He is gathering evidence the impatient man never bothers to collect.
The rush to commit feels like decisiveness. Often it is just discomfort with not knowing yet. The observant man can sit in that discomfort. He withholds the verdict until he has seen the thing under more than one light. He watches how a man behaves when it costs him something, not when it is easy. He notices what people do, not only what they announce. Then, when he commits, he commits all the way — because he has earned the right to be sure.
The Stoic source
Epictetus, Enchiridion 45Somebody is hasty about bathing; do not say that he bathes badly, but that he is hasty about bathing. ... For until you have decided what judgement prompts him, how do you know that what he is doing is bad?
Translated by W. A. Oldfather
The Scripture
Proverbs 19:2, KJVAlso, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth.
The move
Take one commitment you are tempted to rush. Put a thirty-day watch on it. Let time show you what a fast yes would have hidden.