hat do you want  to become when you grow up?” It’s an age-old question that everybody is asked early in life. Whenever some guest comes he asks this question every kid. What some fail to realize is how much power you have in determining your future and in making your dreams a reality? The fact is, everything you do, the achievements you realize, and the person you become can all be traced back to one thing…choice. Make your choices carefully — for they will become your destiny

Og Mandino in his book “Choice” says,

“When we were given dominion over the world, we were also given dominion over ourselves. God is not our navigator. It was never his intention to chart a course for each of us and thus place us all under His bondage. Instead, He bestowed each of us with intellect and talent and vision to map our own way, to write our own Book of Life in any manner that we choose.

Choice! The key is choice. You have options. You need not spend your life wallowing your failure, ignorance, grief, poverty, shame, and self-pity. But, hold on! If this is true, then why have so many among us apparently elected to live in that manner? Who would be fool enough to choose failure over success, ignorance over knowledge, poverty over wealth? No one! So how do we explain that vast multitude of humanity that continues to exist in hopeless mediocrity, unfulfilled, frustrated, envious, drained of confidence and self-esteem, unable to meet even their daily obligations and sad- so sad that each new day produces no fresh seedling of hope, only more weeds of despair from showers of tears?

The answer is simple and obvious.

Those who live in unhappy failure have never exercised their options for the better things of life because they have never been aware that they had many choices! Life to them has never been a game of skill where study, hard work, courage, and perseverance can be brought into play to turn failure into success, misery into happiness.!”

Every one of us awakes each morning with dread in our heart. To face the monotony of yet another day with its ceaseless toil and pressure for so little reward is agony. We bathe, we put on our costume and reluctantly force ourselves to crawl from our cocoon to confront a world we imagine is ready to devour us or trample us underfoot.

Each day repeats the drudgery of the last, except that the hours seem to grow painfully longer as the years pass. The body is weary. The mind is numb. The obligations increase. The future is dim. Finally, the day ends. Blessed sleep. Oblivion. And then the sun rises again.

All Choices Are not Created Equal

Next time you forget that you’re the captain of your ship, think about the choices that you make every day and the impact they have on your life. For example, do you:

• Surround yourself with positive role models or negative influencers?
• Satisfy your needs or try to please everyone else?
• Set high expectations or settle for mediocrity?
• Keep your promises or break your commitments?
• Crave instant gratification or invest in your future?
• Grumble about things or work to make them better?
• Live in the present or relive the past?
• Listen to your conscience or fall victim to temptation?
• Forgive and forget or harbor anger?
• Accept personal responsibility or make excuses?

It’s your choice: what to think, how to spend your time, who to be.

The Choice Is Yours

Making a choice requires more than selecting between option A or option B. Some people let things happen; others make things happen. The choice is yours. You can take control of your life in your hands or leave it to fate, the choice is yours.

By definition, a choice is an either-or decision. As such, every time you choose one direction, you’re also choosing not to take an alternate path. In other words, saying “no” to one idea enables you to say “yes” to another.

Your view of the world can significantly impact the choices that you make. The fact is, we are blinded by filters that distort our thinking process. Be aware of these filters and the impact they have on your decision making.

Do you view the glass as half-full or half-empty? I hope you said “neither” — it’s never good to see the world through a single filter. The fact is, every gear in your car does something different. What would happen if you got stuck in neutral? The same can be said of the way that you view things. How do you see the world?

Unfortunately, we often fall victim to “thinking traps” that influence our feelings and impact our behavior. It’s not a matter of lacking intelligence, but rather of being blinded by a filter that distorts our thinking process. For example, if you wake up thinking that today’s going to be awesome, you’ll likely be happier and more productive than if you fear that problems are lurking around every corner. If you look for problems hard enough, you’re bound to find one.

The key is to know how you see the world and to manage it accordingly.

Do you put first things first or treat everything as a priority? If you treat everything on your plate equally, you won’t have adequate time or resources to address the important things.

Choices are easy. The tough part is living with them. While some of your decisions have short-term consequences, others will shadow you for life. That’s why it’s important to achieve a balance between your short-term desires and your long-term goals.

Some days you’ll make good choices; other times you won’t. That’s life. It’s important to accept responsibility for your decisions rather than shifting the blame to others. Accepting responsibility will instill humility, boost self-reliance, and emphasize the importance of making good choices.

However, always remember that not to decide is to decide. If you don’t take the bull by the horns, the decision will be made for you. You can’t shirk from your responsibility. It is your choice.

Your Life Is Determined by the Sum of the Choices That YOU Make

The future you get depends on the choices you make. Period. No one’s going to force you to go to the gym, invest in your personal growth, or save for retirement. Additionally, you can choose to be an honest person, surround yourself with positive role models, and live a healthy lifestyle. Or you can choose an alternative path. The upshot is, you are bound by the consequences of your choices. It’s your life; own it.

Your most important asset

One of the choices that you make each day is determining how to spend your time. The truth is, we all have 24 hours each day. Do you spend your time on things that matter most to you, or do you squander it and lack enough time in the day like most people?  The fact is, you begin each morning with a blank canvas. It’s your life. You choose what you make of it. You can craft it as you like.

Most people squander their time in doing major in minors of life. They spend pounds (valuable time) in saving pennies(a little money). Then they run short of time and keep harping on the same old string that they don’t have time. They fail to understand that they are wasting their time in telling this thing to others because nobody has any solution to this problem.

If someone complains in public that he doesn’t have enough money to buy his necessities then what will be people’s reaction? They will label him as inefficient, incapable, unintelligent, lowly employed, poor and with many more adjectives for being poor. Actually, those who complain that they don’t have enough time are in other words complaining like this fellow only. They are also poor by all standards and should be treated like those who don’t have money.

So always have time on your side to exercise more choices in your life. It’s your life.

What is your opinion of choices in life? Comment below.

We have a free ebook for you on “How to beat the Procrastination”,  which you can download from HERE.

Do you remember a person who made a major impact on your life? Your mom, dad, brother, sister, teacher, coach or neighbor. There are many people who make positive as well as negative changes in us for our lifelong learning.

Someone who gave you a big opportunity in your job, business or profession or your first sales job.

When you think about that person you become indebted to him forever. You pray for his well-being and long life to God.

Most of the people we come across in our life are doing their hustle. May be their jobs, business or professions but what they do to us by their advice makes them stand out of the rest. A teacher building your dreams, encouraging you to become great in life instead of disparaging you. A parent extending their every help for your life advancement. A neighbor wishing for your success in exams, someone helping pay your fees for education.

Pay for somebody’s education, donate blood to someone, say words of encouragement to someone to make his day.

Say words of encouragement to a traffic policeman who is standing whole day in scorching heat with attention on a road crossing listening to horns and imbibing the smoke of your vehicles. He is doing a grueling job and a few words of compassion can make his day.

Express empathy for someone handicapped. Help someone blind or handicapped to cross the road. Encourage a girl child to go to school.

The words you tell a child to become something big in life may change their life.

The power of your appreciation or depreciation

When Victor Serebriakoff was 15 his school teacher labeled him a dunce and with this label, he kept doing various jobs for the next 17 years and acted like a dunce.

At 32 a test revealed that he had an IQ of 161. And suddenly he was a hit guy. He completely transformed himself into an intellectual and wrote books, secured patents in his name, he went on to become chairman of the International Mensa Society.

Did he suddenly get a super brain doze? No. But when he came to know about his IQ he started thinking like that and his subconscious transformed him likewise.

It is true you are what you think. So mind it you don’t know who is going to turn tomorrow into a Victor Serebriakoff.

Don’t allow somebody to label you a dunce because it is sure you are not one. Also, don’t worry if your IQ is not 161. You may be having something else in place of a super IQ. Sachin had cricket passion, Bill Gates had a computer knack, Beethoven had a music acumen, Amitabh Bachchan had an acting talent and so on.

You find out, what is your Knack?

Words work miracles.

A gentleman was in a hurry at a railway station to catch the morning local train. He was alighting staircase in a hurry. He saw a boy sitting at the platform and he thought something and threw two dollars in the pot with the boy and hustled to catch the train. But instantly came back to the boy an picked up 4 pencils from his glass and told him I thought I should take my pencils after all you are also a businessman and rushed again to board the train.

After some days he was in a get together where a young boy came up to him and wished him saying, “Sir good morning, do you recognize me?” He said no. The boy introduced himself, “I am the same beggar who was begging at the station that day but you came and gave me two dollars and took pencils telling me that after all, I was also a businessman. Those pencils were also given to me by a child who had no money to give me.

That day my soul humiliated me and I woke up to start my small business of selling magazines on the train and today I am also a businessman and I have my own newspaper vending business. I am thankful to you that you awakened me that day.”

So a beggar turned into a businessman because somebody called him a businessman. Many times our soul gets hurt or inspired by the words we hear from people about us.  

Therefore, in addition to our help we do to others by our money, time and resources a great help to people maybe our words for them. If we encourage and appreciate people for their work then they try to live that and in turn start doing good work. Everyone in this world has something good in them. We can always find that good in people for their betterment and tell them.

What do you think about appreciation for others? Comment in the box below. Get your free ebook on ‘How to beat the Procrastination’ HERE.