Inquiry · “You Are Not Your Thoughts”
The Power of Decision
Break a draining indecision by examining the choice once, making a definite mental decision, and then declining to reconsider it — treating the act of deciding itself as the creative move that sets mind and action in one direction.
The Power of Decision: Name the choice in one sentence. Look at the real options once. Then decide — definitely — and say so inwardly. Every time the mind reopens the argument, decline it and return to the decision made. Take one concrete step today, and let the deeper mind carry the rest. Indecision, not a wrong choice, is the real failure.
What it is
This is Raymond Charles Barker’s signature practice, the heart of his 1968 book The Power of Decision. Barker held that the act of decision is itself the creative act of mind — that a person who cannot decide cannot demonstrate anything, because a divided mind sends a divided instruction to the subconscious.
His remedy is blunt: examine the matter once, make a clear-cut decision, and then stop reconsidering it. The practice is not about choosing “correctly” so much as about choosing definitely and then living from that choice instead of hovering over it.
Where most New Thought methods work on belief or feeling, Barker located the leverage point earlier — in the moment of commitment itself, the instant you stop being “of two minds.”
The Method
Faithfully described from Barker’s teaching (short attributed phrasing only):
- Name the decision squarely. State exactly what must be decided, in one sentence. Vagueness is where indecision hides. Barker’s premise: “Decision is the most important factor in any life” — so make the thing to be decided explicit.
- Gather what you reasonably can — once. Look at the real facts and your real options a single time. Barker is not anti-thought; he is against the endless re-weighing that masquerades as prudence.
- Decide — definitely. Choose. Say inwardly, in effect, “I have decided. This is my choice.” Barker treats indecision, not wrong choices, as the chief cause of failure: a made decision, even an imperfect one, mobilises the mind; a permanently open question paralyses it.
- Refuse to re-decide. This is the discipline. Each time the mind drifts back to “but maybe I should have…”, you decline the re-argument and return to the decision already made. You are not suppressing thought; you are refusing to re-open a closed file.
- Act from the decision now. Take the first concrete step the decision implies today. Barker insists the power is in the present: a decision unacted-upon is not yet a decision. → operationalizes The Inner Creates the Outer (the present moment is the point of power).
- Let the subconscious carry it. Having decided once and clearly, hand the carrying-out to the deeper mind and stop micromanaging it with worry. → operationalizes The Inner Creates the Outer (the subconscious can be re-impressed by a single clear instruction). (Sourcing note: Barker’s books are in print; the above is attributed paraphrase and short quotation, not reproduction.)
Source & Lineage
Raymond Charles Barker (1911-1988) was a Religious Science minister, close associate of Ernest Holmes, founder of the First Church of Religious Science in New York, and a president of the International New Thought Alliance.
The Power of Decision (1968) distilled the Science of Mind into a single practical lever: decisiveness. He stood downstream of Holmes’s mental-causation framework but made his own emphasis — the decisive act — central in a way Holmes’s more treatment-focused work did not.
The Traditions' versions
The move commit fully, then stop re-litigating recurs widely; Barker’s version is distinctive in framing the commitment itself as the creative spiritual act: - Holmes / Spiritual Mind Treatment — Barker’s mentor’s structured affirmative prayer; Barker locates the power earlier, in the decision that precedes any treatment.
- The Choose Again Method (Gabrielle Bernstein) — choosing a better-feeling thought in the moment; Barker decides a course of action once and holds it, rather than re-choosing each thought.
- Implementation intentions (“if-then” planning), CBT decision work — committing to a specific plan reduces deliberation and raises follow-through.
- William James on “the will to believe” / settling the will — ending vacillation as itself a source of energy.
Common refinements
Confusing “decide” with “decide correctly.” Barker’s point is that deciding mobilises you; waiting for certainty before deciding is the trap. Choose on the best available reading and move.
- Re-opening the file constantly. The whole discipline is declining the re-argument. If you re-decide ten times a day you have not decided once.
- Using it to bulldoze new facts. Refusing to re-decide applies to worry and second-guessing, not to genuinely new, material information. Update on real new data; don’t update on anxiety wearing the mask of “due diligence.”
- Deciding and not acting. A decision with no first step today is still indecision. Take the concrete move.
- Forcing a decision while flooded. If you are panicked or exhausted, steady yourself first; decide from clarity, not from a desire to escape the discomfort of openness.