What do you do when there are more questions than answers?

We have all heard that it's important to repeat positive affirmations to help us realize our goals. We keep on saying our affirmations every day and nothing happens. I attended a workshop and learned that you have to repeat your affirmations 108 times to raise them to the level where manifestation takes place. The following week, while reading The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity, I learned that the number 15 is a significant number. The author further added that each day you need to say your affirmations for at least 15 minutes, and write them out at least 15 times. We now have an interesting situation. Is it 15 or is it 108? Looking at the information at hand, does it mean that on average, it takes 15 minutes to say an affirmation 108 times? Or, is writing an affirmation 15 times equivalent to saying it 108 times. How would you define an average length affirmation?

The reality is that we do not have enough information to make a decision.

Research revealed that the number 108 has spiritual significance. I also selected an affirmation from The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity, "All financial doors are open, all financial channels are free and endless bounty comes to me," and it takes 10 minutes to say it 108 times. So, where does that leave us?

Was I racing through the affirmation? Are your affirmations longer or shorter than this one? To complicate matters further, in Creative Visualization, the author, Shakti Gawain writes that you should "Take any affirmation you want to work with and write it ten or twenty times in succession on a piece of paper… Use your name and try to write it in the first, second and third persons." She also mentions in the book that writing your affirmation is very powerful because "The written word has so much power over our minds. We are both writing and reading them at the same time, so it's like a double hit of energy." So, is it 10, 15, 20 or 108? Now we have a conundrum. More questions than answers.

So, what do you do when you are confronted with this exact situation? What do you do when you have an important decision to make and you are faced with contrasting information, incomplete information, or information that simply raises more questions than answers? Do you throw your hands up in frustration, toss a coin, or just simply give up? Say for example that your company plans to launch a new product and you have done some test marketing, and the results are very favourable. However, a trusted employee brings you information on a similar product that was launched two years earlier, which failed miserably. The product that failed had fifty percent of the characteristics of your company's product. What do you? Fire the bearer of bad news, ask the employee to keep her mouth shut, or investigate further?

When your personal credibility is on the line, which is all the time, the correct thing to do is to seek additional information. You could hire someone to assist you in finding the answer, and if you cannot find a definitive answer, just make an educated guess because that is what leaders do. You will find yourself in many situations where there are more questions than answers.