If as a result of an action you feel unhappy, or your mind is agitated or disturbed, then that action falls under the category of ‘bad’. But, if your action has contributed to the good of the general public, though it might have caused some personal difficulties for you, then the action should be termed as ‘good’.
Rāma decided to go to forest for fourteen years. He did not change this decision although his subjects and the elders of King Daśaratha’s court earnestly pleaded with him not to go. It is true that as a result Rāma had to undergo many difficulties. However, a good result followed in the end.
Hence Rāma’s decision to go to the forest is to be termed as a good one. If your mind is pure and if your thoughts are not influenced by selfish motives, you can boldly make good decisions. I would even say that for this, faith in God is not essential.
You should be absolutely certain that what you do is correct and that public good will result from your action. Then you become self-confident. Everyone cannot take the correct decision the first time. Sometimes mistakes happen. It does not matter. Think, ‘Even though I have failed this time, I will do it in the proper way next time.’
While learning to walk, a child takes wrong steps, falls, laughs and laboriously gets up again. Like the infant, the intellectual entity in you also must learn slowly through the discipline of life to come to a right decision through a series of conscious, deliberate and perhaps sorrowfully wrong decisions.
The scriptures advise us when we are in doubt, to follow implicitly what other masters have decided upon under similar circumstances, or to follow implicitly what other cultured and decent people around us would do under similar conditions.
Do not be afraid of making wrong decisions. Consider each decision as a part of your self-improvement schooling. Do not be ashamed of wrong decisions, but diligently learn from them. They are full of wisdom for the intelligent to learn from and grow. Everything will turn out well in the course of time.