You are not entitled to your opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.

There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control.

These things are not asking to be judged by you.

You always own the option of having no opinion.

It’s easy to know what you should do. It’s easy to decide what you want to do. The problem, as always, is that life gets in the way of these well-laid plans. Other people get in the way. Friction, apathy, inertia, indecision—they all get in the way. 

What do you do when everything gets mixed up?

When the other team calls an audible, when the coverage is confusing, when the play breaks down and there’s havoc on the field, when the play clock is running down and the play call hasn’t come in yet because the headsets aren’t working. 

When there’s chaos and your brain is panicking. Slow down. 

This isn’t just an on-field thing. Like when a player gets in trouble, when there is a controversy, when a tempting high risk, high reward player hits the waiver wire, when somebody wants to renegotiate a contract, when he’s being savaged in the press.

If you don’t have panic rules…you’re liable to make panicked decisions. You’re liable to do something emotional, something short term, something that violates your principles and hurts your cause.

Stoicism, in theory, is a philosophy. As a practice, it is a set of panic rules. 

Just that you do the right thing is an amazingly pithy and prescient panic rule. The rest doesn’t matter. Don’t get distracted, don’t overthink it, and don’t be led astray. In the language of football, play to the whistle, stick with your man, and know your assignment.

Meaning, when things get crazy, you should step back. Wait until you’ve made up your mind before you say or do anything. Don’t just add your judgment on top of things based on reflex. 

If life was easy and perfect, we wouldn’t need panic rules. But it isn’t. Things are complicated. They go awry. We get mixed signals and we get overwhelmed. When that happens, we must always revert, at once, to our panic rules. 

The key is to make it really simple. So simple that we can’t screw it up. Then, once we’ve gotten a hold of ourselves and gotten through that down, Les might say, we can huddle up, catch our breath, call the next play, and hopefully do better this time. 

Disclaimer: The information on this POST is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional advice. The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this article is for general information purposes / educational purposes only, and to ensure discussion or debate.

Thank you ...Our thoughts determine the character of the reality we live in. If you see the awfulness in everything, your life will feel awful—even if you are surrounded by wealth and success.

If you hold a perpetually negative outlook, soon enough everything you encounter will seem negative. Close it off and you’ll become closed-minded.

Color it with the wrong thoughts and your life will be dyed the same. If you have a growth mindset, if you consider the very real chance of adversity, you won’t be easily discouraged when you fail.

If you find something to be grateful for in every situation, you will feel blessed and happy where others feel aggrieved or deprived. 

The problem with the Law of Attraction is that it cuts both ways. 

By believing that thinking positively produces positive outcomes, it actually makes practitioners very vulnerable—because they will deliberately avoid thinking of potentially negative outcomes. And then guess what? When these outcomes do happen—because, well, life—they’re caught off guard. 

The key is that the discipline of perception is worthless on its own. What matters is what follows—the discipline of action. 

Do you want to add a word or two?....

What is the word to describe a person who does not have a personal opinion or stand on a subject?

If somebody says X is right, then you could agree. But if some other person says X is wrong, and you also agree, you are not really expressing your own opinion. You are simply agreeing with everyone else. How do you describe that kind of personality with one word in a formal way? Specifically, someone who cannot make decisions on their own and depends on others' opinions.

There are any number of possible answers. Neutral, undecided, diplomatic, flip-flopper, inattentive, forgetful, willing to learn from mistakes and a hundred more.

You will have to be way more specific. Do they really not have an opinion, or do they just withhold it; for what reason and to what end do they act like that; do they always do that, or in particular situations, or just once; is it considered a good thing or a bad thing, and considered by whom. And so on and so forth.

Since it has not yet been mentioned, I'll add ambivalent. It does not imply indifference, but it does imply an inability or refusal to decide definitively.

Your comments?....

We discussed an article on the benefits and weaknesses of “Neither Agree Nor Disagree” as a survey response option. It has some benefits, because it provides an “out” for those that don’t have a strong opinion and avoids frustrating those that need the option available, but it also introduces several problems, including the idea that it allows people to not think critically about their opinion and often takes too much room on the page.

Another option you may want to consider is adding something similar – a “No Opinion” option. “No Opinion” is a very similar response to “Neither Agree Nor Disagree,” but it does have some characteristics that may make it a better choice for researchers.

This is not to say that “no opinion” is necessarily a better option. Very little research has been done to compare and contrast these two choices, and without that research there is simply no way to know other than our own guesses as to what will help a survey receive more accurate answers.

On a surface level, however, it does look like “no opinion” has the potential to be a bit more helpful than the “Neither Agree Nor Disagree” answer, and while it’s not a perfect measurement by any means, it may be a better choice for your survey.

Your guess is as good as mine….. saying that you don't have enough information to answer a factual question.

You're asking the wrong person…. saying that you are not affected by the topic of the question and so have no opinion or interest in the topic.

I don't have any feelings either way…. might be an answer to a question about what somebody is going to do. You are saying that you don't really care.

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