Life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% of how we react to it.
All the events in our lives have good or bad value, and this value is given exclusively by our minds. Each day we get up and are barraged with activities and choices that determine what we accomplish and experience on that day. Success? Failure? Disappointment? These are all the ways we choose to perceive a situation. These are the things that are clearly up to us and those that are not. I think we let our minds run away with us and spend too much time focusing on all of the things that we can’t control. This attention is a reminder to myself and urges you to spend a bit of time today thinking about the thoughts we are entertaining.
What we Control
The things we control are pretty vast, and focusing on these in our daily lives allows us to become more dynamic and successful at what we are trying to accomplish. Our choices are all our choices: our emotions, judgments, creativity, attitude, perspective, desires, decisions, and determination.
If you spend your thoughts focused on these aspects of your life, you will be proactive, positive, and most likely successful. When you look at an obstacle in your way, you can either sit there and complain about it, retreat and fear you will never get around it. Or focus on the things you can do now because of it. Look for the action you can take and the path you can go down. How does this thing in your way provide the opportunity for you to become better? You will find it in the actions you take, the thoughts and emotions you focus on, your creativity, attitude, positive or negative, your mindset (growth or fixed), and your perspective on how the world works and how you fit into it.
What You Don’t Control
There are many things you can’t control, and to obsess about these is where we waste a lot of our time. You can’t control the weather, the economy, general circumstances, other people’s emotions, trends, disasters, decisions of others, thoughts of others, or the past. All of these things are done without much input from you, and to spend your time obsessing about them is a waste of time.
Do not ignore these things because that would be foolish. Identify everything as it is, as clearly as you can. Once you have identified something as it is, you can look for opportunities that exist for you to take action. Create a positive emotion about your direction, and find a way to improve because of your situation. Or how creative you can be to overcome whatever circumstance you are facing. You suddenly get laid off or leave a job. You can spend time complaining about what happened and feeling sorry for yourself, but that is counterproductive. Look for the growth and positive energy that can come from looking for a new job or going down an original path.
In the End, It Is All Up to YOU
Of course, this is the case. The scary part about the journey we are on is that we are the only ones who make the choices about the things we focus on. It is easy to say don’t think about this or that, but when life forces you to look at something in a new way, it isn’t easy to get out of your head. Only you can choose to see the positive and make choices that will push you in the right direction.
Avoiding the in-depth overthinking that we become addicted to can be very difficult. You think that what if? or Why did this happen? What are people going to think? All of those are useless thoughts that you can’t control. Action is what you can manage and what you do now will determine your fate and the results of your efforts. Focus on what you can do something about with your actions.
“You are as amazing as you let yourself be. Let me repeat that. You are as amazing as you let yourself be.”–Elizabeth Alraune
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be”.—Ralph Waldo Emerson
“When we argue for our limitations, we get to keep them.”—–Evelyn Waugh
It is the strange experience of being a human being. We exist in the world, thinking we are all different, but basically, we are the same. Each person is made up of the same building blocks called atoms, and these atoms form our bodies. Everyone has an alive organization, even though they vary in looks and proportions.
Each person has an essence inside, which is unique in the world, but we are all connected in possession of such a thing. Our personalities and thoughts are ours alone, and we are all individuals. It is one of the biggest dualities we face in life, being an individual but part of something. It is the energy of life that connects us. This energy is generated first by the thoughts we think, then the words we use to express our thoughts and our actions as a result. Oneness is all around, but you have to look for it to notice.
Each One Has Energy
All of our physical experiences, conscious and unconscious, are caused by an electrical reaction. Each thought is a firing synapse that sends a message to the body, to do or not to do something. We are driven by electricity, and that electricity flows between us all. Isn’t physical death the point when our energy can no longer flow through our body? Our powers are not unique, as all people have access to creating thought and energy. We are all the same through this energy, and we are all one.
We determine our energetic impact on the world through the tenor of our thoughts. Thoughts of love describe later on or the opinions of fear determine our active influence on the planet. It is the same for everyone. We are one. Focus on the fearful thoughts of anger, judgment, hate, jealousy, resentment, greed, lies, or ego. Your energy and the results you get in life are based almost solely on your energy. Each individual has the same opportunity to create positive thoughts and conclusions.
The Myth of Separation
We have all been conditioned to believe that we are all separate and alone in the world. This perceived separation can be used to manipulate people into behavior that isn’t in our best interest. That behavior is usually driven by fear. It starts when we are young and continues into adulthood. We are given a set of experiences and memories which belong to us alone. Society judges us on our accomplishments, education, relationships, possessions accumulated, and relative intelligence.
It makes you feel like you live in an isolated place. But there is a connection you can feel between people if you look for it. Some will call this force God, the Universe, or whatever makes you comfortable, but it is clear there is something that makes us all unique and together at that same time, and that energy is what makes everything work. No other person has ever existed who is exactly like you, and there never will be. That is the case for everyone, and we are all connected through that oneness.
Love is the connector.
Focusing on the positiveness of love is the road to seeing the oneness we all share. Love is a powerful, positive force that respects others, life, nature, and you. It comes in all its different levels and costumes to make us see that we are not alone in the world, and all people have basic humanity that connects us all. No one is better than another because of age, ethnicity, nationality, or religion. We are all equal, the same, and connected.
These connections can be seen when you practice love in your life by treating people with the thoughtfulness that love demands. Joy, peace, love, hope, humility, acceptance, understanding, kindness, empathy, and truth are all creators of positivity and allow people to realize that although there are minor differences between us, we are all the same underneath. Focus on the positive forces of life, and those connections with others become easy. Stray from them or ignore them, and isolation or poor company is inevitable. The choice is always yours. We all experience oneness in this.
Look for the Oneness
Take a moment today and look at someone else. Maybe someone you know or someone you see in passing and look at them, we all have eyes to see, ears to hear, noses to smell, hands to touch, and voices to speak. Think about the miracle this is. We are all the same, and we are united at that moment. Life is an experience that we are all sharing—a one-of-a-kind set of circumstances unifying us if we let it. Seek the oneness in each person, and you will find it.
It will all start with a conscious awareness of your thoughts and their tone in your life. Positive will lead to growth, wellness, and enjoyment, and opposing will lead to less than enjoyable circumstances. Whether you are conscious of your thinking or not, it still belongs to you, and you will always reap the benefits or negatives of that effort. Look at your words and actions that result. The difference between positive and negative is evident for all people to understand.
“Wisdom is knowing we are all One. Love is what it feels like, and Compassion is what it acts like.” ~ Ethan Walker
“The sun shines down, and its image reflects in a thousand different pots filled with water. The reflections are many, but they are each reflecting the same sun. Similarly, when we come to know who we truly are, we will see ourselves in all people.” ~ Ammachi
“When I look inside and see that I am nothing, that is wisdom. When I look outside and see that I am everything, that is love. And between these two, my life turns.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
Please don’t rely on scarecrows with hay in their heads to make choices. Do it consciously.
To make real choices in your life, first, you have to become fully conscious of the thoughts you entertain in your mind. Full consciousness is not easy to accomplish because our brains have been programmed throughout our lives to think a certain way and react almost unconsciously to certain stimuli. If you are responding to things in a patterned manner, then really, there is no choice, just patterned reactionary behavior. Today, one thought is to look at all of your preferences for only one day and ask yourself why you made that decision. Choice implies that we have a consciousness about us, so be aware of the thousands of options we make in a day and the repercussions of these decisions, big and small.
Conscious or Unconscious
It all begins when you seperate yourself from your thoughts. Too often, we have been conditioned to believe that we are our thoughts. An idea is only as accurate as we allow it to be. A mind is a powerful tool, and it can help us solve complex problems and create positive situations, but it is just a tool, not who we are. What your thoughts for some time and notice their value; most are repeated ideas we have been thinking about for many years. But you don’t have to identify with them,
Be conscious and become aware or unconscious and unaware—your choice.
That is the real beginning of choice. You start to understand that you are not the mind, but the person behind the account who uses the tool to create your life.
The choice begins here. Once we realize we are not our thoughts, we become present in the moment. We are no longer compelled to react in a patterned response from a conditioned mind. Think out how often we try to recreate what we are familiar with because the brain likes comfortable. Your conscious is delighted with the known. Whereas the unknown is a hazardous and fearful experience because we feel there is no way to control it.
All real choices are made in the present moment with an understanding of the pros and cons of each moment and making a decision based on how it will affect your life. Not how he past has gone, or what you imagine may go wrong tomorrow. Make choices based on the day’s feelings, thoughts, and possibilities. The option is not a reaction, and it is a conscious decision to act, not act or create.
Your Choices Define You
No matter if you are operating on a conscious or unconscious level, you will be defined by the choices you make. Are you resented by love or fear? When you make the decisions of love, the resulting feelings will be overwhelmingly good. If your choices are coming from fear, then bad feelings will result. These fundamental decisions are going to define you every moment. Look at your thoughts, which take your focus. Are they anchored in
Your choices will identify you and the kind of person you are in the world.
The past? Or centered on what might happen in the future? The only moment that matters now.
Pull your thoughts into this moment and what is happening in your life right now. That is the one thing you are guaranteed at this moment. Either you find the joy in it or the pain, which is the natural choice we are making every moment. Life is a short ride, and the only thing you are guaranteed is that it will end at some point. At that moment, how do you want the choices you make today to look? Are you making decisions based on what is favorable for you? Or are you making choices you feel others will accept? Options that are safe and in accord with the programming from your past? Decisions that you can’t second-guess? Or are you making choices based on the present moment and who you are as unlimited potential? Too often, for me, this is not the case.
Today’s Choices
Take time today and be aware of where you are honestly in this life journey. Make choices of w at type of person you want to be, and then choose to take action from that frame of mind. Efforts in this a a will take you to the experiences you need to become the best version of yourself possible. Look at all your c ices and understand what direction they are pushing you. If they don’t make you better, it is time to start making different choices. The incredible thing about life is that it is never too late to take another direction and begin to become a better version of yourself. It will happen one c conscious choice at a time.
“Your life changes the moment you make a new, congruent, and committed decision.” —Tony Robbins
“Life presents you with so many decisions. A lot of times, they re right in front of your face, and they’re really difficult, but we must make them.” —Brittany Murphy
“We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.” —Stephen Covey
“Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.” —Keri Russell
I was discussing with a friend the other day about all of the things we had done that, in retrospect, seemed like bad ideas.
Failed relationships, poor decisions, wrong turns on the path of life all came up, and my friend said the magic phrase, “If I knew then what I know now, things would be different. If I could only do it all over again.” That thought is probably one that everyone has had at some point in their lives. I, myself, have thought this before, but not any longer.
If allowed to go back in time and make different choices, I would have to pass, and here is why.
First of all, it is common to look back with a sense of nostalgia and not with realism. Choices were made for a reason. You have no way of knowing how a change in your life would affect you today.
Things could have turned out much worse for you. A Teacher best explained it to me this way. If you picture all of those choices you didn’t make as ships sailing in the distance, you can see the sails full of wind pushing them off into the horizon.
You are wasting your time chasing them with regret because you will never catch them, and you don’t know what is beyond the horizon. Those ships may have carried you to some very unsavory and unwanted results.
Things could have been much worse for you if you had made a different choice. We only focus on a lofty, positive result when we think of doing things differently. When the outcome could have been disastrous. Since you could be far better off with the choice you did make, thoughts like this appear to be a waste of effort.
Secondly, constantly questioning your past decisions will make it much more difficult to enjoy what you do have today.
You may have a good job or a relationship you value, and you won’t be giving them your full attention and enjoying them as much as you could if you waste your energy pining away about the past and what might have been.
Every one of life’s choices is a potential learning experience, and usually, the decision of whether it was a good or a wrong choice is made solely by you. You can choose to get something good out of almost every situation you encounter, or you can choose to get something wrong. It is all up to you.
So why not enjoy what you have today and appreciate the experiences that have gotten you here, rather than spend your days rehashing old mistakes and carrying around the regret of what might have been.
Third, one of the great things about getting older is that we do, even if we don’t try, gain experience and a form of wisdom with it.
From the day we are born, we are continually learning new things to navigate the sometimes tricky channels of life. Some people take much more advantage of these learning experiences than others. Without all of the “mistakes” we have made along the path of life, we would lose much of the hard-earned wisdom and knowledge we have gathered over the years.
Everybody has the ability for good and to live a life that satisfies them and makes the world a better place. Regretting your past decisions is a form of self-loathing that decreases your self-esteem and makes living an authentic life more difficult.
If you dislike your choices so much, you must dislike who you have become, and it is hard to be happy when you are forced to face a person in the mirror every day that you are not very fond of sometimes.
You Choose to be Whatever you want.
Finally, we all have the ultimate choice for what type of person we are to be. Regardless of all of the options we have made. What you did yesterday, ten years ago or twenty years ago, has very little to do with who we choose to be today.
Nothing can stop you from being positive except yourself. Nothing can stop you from being productive except yourself. Nothing can stop you from being great except yourself.
The past is stored in the high attic of your mind. It is OK to remember and visit and pour over past experiences to glean wisdom, but to carry around a profound sense of regret about things will get you nowhere.
Today is the next great day of your life, and you can choose to make it so or decide to turn it into another moment you will regret in the future as you watch it sail into the horizon.
Quotes About Regrets:
“A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.” – John Barrymore
“Accept everything about yourself – I mean everything, You are you, and that is the beginning and the end – no apologies, no regrets.”-Henry A. Kissinger.
“Apologies are pointless, and regrets come too late. What matters is you can move, on you can grow.” Kelsey Grammer
“Chris Cooper once told me never to have any regrets. After Chris said that to me, I walked into every scene thinking, ‘exhaust every possibility.’ Once you get to a certain place, it’s like you just deliver everything you’ve got. I don’t have any regrets. It pops up in my mind over and over and over again.” Jake Gyllenhaal
“For my own part, I abandon the ethics of duty to the Hegelian critique with no regrets; it would appear to me, indeed, to have been correctly characterized by Hegel as an abstract thought, as a thought of understanding.” Paul Ricoeur
“Had we not pursued the hydrogen bomb, there is a very real threat that we would now all be speaking Russian. I have no regrets.” Edward Teller
“Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.” Louisa May Alcott
“Having regrets and things, it just takes your time away.” Leif Garrett
“He had to deal all at once with the packed regrets and stifled memories of an inarticulate lifetime.” Edith Wharton
“I already gave my best. I have no regrets at all.” William Hung
“I do not allow myself vain regrets or foreboding.” Mary Chesnut
“I don’t have a lot of regrets in my life.” Cathy Freeman
“I don’t have any regrets. When I quit college and moved to Los Angeles to become an actress, it was so that I would not look back and have any regrets.” Amy Weber
“I don’t really believe in regrets.” Wayne Newton
“I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about regrets because there’s nothing I can do.” Sheryl Crow
“I felt that I ostracized myself by my behavior, by the past, by living with all the regrets of my mistakes, that I sort of wore a hair shirt and beat myself up most of the day thinking and regretting why did I make such a mistake? Why have I made so many mistakes?” Sarah Ferguson
“I gave everything in my career, so I have no regrets at all.” Michel Patini
“I have a lot of regrets, but I’m not going to think of them as regrets.” Debbie Harry
“I have many regrets, and I’m sure everyone does. The stupid things you do, you regret… if you have any sense, and if you don’t regret them, maybe you’re stupid.” Katharine Hepburn
“I have no regrets about launching Salon. For the life of me, I can’t imagine doing anything else.” David Talbot
“I have no regrets about my life.” Jane Badler
“I have no regrets because I did everything by the book.” Alexis Arguello
“I have no regrets in my life. I think that everything happens to you for a reason. The hard times that you go through build character, making you a much stronger person.” Rita Mero
“I have no regrets. I don’t believe in looking back. What I am proudest of? Working really hard… and achieving as much as I could.” Elena Kagan
“I have no regrets. I wouldn’t have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say.” Ingrid Bergman
“I have no regrets. I’ve got my health.” Naomi Campbell
“I have to say that I have no regrets about my decision to become a priest or about the major directions my ministry has taken me… I have been and am happy as a priest, and I have never been lonely… I could have used a bit more solitude.” Andrew Greeley
“I try to live my life where I end up at a point where I have no regrets. So I try to choose the road that I have the most passion for because then you can never really blame yourself for making the wrong choices. You can always say you’re following your passion.” Darren Aronofsky
I usually say I did the best I could with what I had. I have no major regrets. Stokely Carmichael
“I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets.” David Herbert Lawrence
“I’m not gonna try to defend, or undo what’s been done. All I could say about whatever’s been done, it’s been done, and it’s water under the bridge. I have no regrets of my life.”==Ike Turner
“I’m very lucky, I’m happy with life because my experiences led me to do what I had to do. I don’t have any regrets whatsoever.” Van Morrison
Power- the ability to do something or act in a particular way, especially as a faculty or quality.
Each of us has the power to affect the world. We may not be conscious of it, but it exists. It allows you to overcome the feelings of being powerless. Listening to the media message sent to you every day will make you feel vulnerable and helpless. Reported stories and events make the world seem big, scary, and out of the realm of your safe little world. That is a perspective advantageous to industry and sales. If you feel powerless, you look for comfort, buy things you don’t need, and try to protect yourself by doing what the messages tell you to do. In short, it is easy to manipulate a person who feels powerless and weak. Worry comes directly from this belief. But you have power and can affect how you look at and act with life.
Seeing Your Power
Your power does not come from the things you own, but it arrives from who you are. It is the choices that you make every day which define you. Decisions made every day without a conscious thought determine much of your life. Look at your options and only choose those you want to represent you. These are the choices you know are for the greater good. Trust, a larger purpose, can be served by your straightforward, positive options every day. Then take responsibility for your decisions and your ability to make a positive difference in your life and the world.
Your power will influence others, even if you don’t see it. That influence will be positive or negative, depending on the tenor of your thoughts throughout your day. Do you know the danger in every conversation? Do you see a potential enemy in others? Or do you see the opportunity for kindness and creating an ally? Which way your thought pattern falls dictates your power. Are you making it positively or negatively? Power is yours every moment of every day.
Powerful Vision
Once you have actively embraced your ability and responsibility to make a positive difference in the world, then it is up to you to direct your power in a particular direction. Into your relationships, career, personal development, or any other thing you choose to improve. It begins with establishing a vision of what you would like to see in your life. Use your imagination to create the scenario you would like to see become a part of your life. Then be true to that personal vision. If you want to change your physical appearance, develop a health plan of exercise and diet that resonates with you and brings it to reality. Be consistent and live it as you move through every day; it will come to pass.
Each area you want to improve will change your life in schedule and activity. Rather than fight change, learn to embrace it. It is difficult for all people. Actively embrace the positive changes you make in your life. Focus on the personal honesty you use with people. Don’t worry about the result of your goodness. Be honest and accept the consequences. Have a vision pursue that vision honestly, and eliminate the worry from your life. The power to dictate positive change will result from that.
Challenge Your Inaccurate Beliefs
Lies and inaccuracies take away our power as well. We develop beliefs over our lives. They come from our family, peers, teachers, society, and authority figures. We try to place these things into concrete in our minds, and they provide us with rules to follow in life. But a myth can take your power if you attach it to a limiting or untrue belief. The perception we have of things dictates our patterns of thought and behavior. This can refocus any mind at any point to see things more positively. Hate, judgment and fear turn into kindness, acceptance, and love with a change of focused thought.
To do this, look at the negative beliefs you are carrying about other people, places, things. Stereotypes and fear of others you learn through your programming through history, family, or the media. Change those thoughts to the positive. Don’t allow people to mistreat you. It is the opposite. You have power. Never accept behavior that is below your standards. You recognize poor behavior for what it is. If you don’t want contrary in your life, remove it. If someone treats you poorly, it is your choice to tolerate it or not. That is power. That is your power. Believing that it is ok for someone to treat you poorly or deserve it is what we want to eliminate because it is a weak mentality. Be authoritative in your choices, and of course, you will have power.
Find Your Power
Take a moment and consciously consider where you put your power every day. How much worry do you participate in? Fear takes away your control; being a positive and confident person gives it to you. The way you think about your experiences will dictate the words you use and then your actions because of it. If you live in fear of this or that, later you will play a small game, make a few changes and meekly accept bad things as your fault. I encourage you to live with power. Take responsibility for where you are and what you have done. More importantly, look where you want to go and start taking action to get you there.
“In an expanded state of awareness, you perceive beyond the limitations of your body and mind and feel that you are part of the vast universe around you, connected to All That Is.”
“A good indignation brings out all one’s powers.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Age is just a number. However, some numbers are much more intimidating than others, and turning 50 is one. It happened to me a few years ago and to a friend of mine just this week.
To me, at this milestone, I have conflicting feelings. I assume all people are the same. I have fears and insecurities about life, just as I did when I turned 40, 30, 20, or even 10. Hopefully, I have developed tools and learned lessons that have helped me positively navigate the aging process—embracing the experience. Reflection is one of the tools that I use to understand the value of an incident. To take that lesson into living my life every day.
Challenges
Life is designed to bring a series of challenges we all have to navigate. Each challenge presents us with choices. Choices that define our lives. A problem may overwhelm us, crush us, and destroy our confidence if we allow them to. However, there is always another choice. To seek the better version of ourselves and choose to rise and live our lives in a way that reflects the best version of the living. These choices we have been making from the beginning and will continue to build until we reach the inevitable end. The challenges we face and the choices we make about them will dictate the experience of our lives.
People tend to keep their most painful lessons to themselves. This secrecy is to keep up a perception that we are in control. Handling all events efficiently and with style. In Reality, all people are just making it up as they go. It is self-delusion, and a person believes they understand it all. There is always more, no matter how much one learns, observes, and understands. The vast undiscovered iceberg of knowledge is still floating toward us undiscovered. There is always something else to learn and more growth to achieve.
Growth
To be your best is the ultimate goal of life. Not to accumulate a large cache of material possessions but to become the best version of yourself. That is where the challenges come in. Without change, things become stagnant.
The opportunity for growth is constant.
Often we become so comfortable in life, just the prospect of change is tremendously scary.
Reflection and growth can only come when challenged and forced to take in new information and experiences. Life is a gift, and you need to grow to get the most out of it. The alternative is to shrink a little each day until your gs are challenging to remember and your passion has faded.
Fortunately, it is never too late to recapture the passion for your dream. Your creativity is still there, dormant underneath all of the routine, predictability, and conforming expectation behavior. It is just waiting for you to remember. The sad thing is that many will not remember, but you decide your destiny.
You choose your path and direction. You allow life’s experience to push you. Will you fight or flee? Will you stand proud or hide in shame? Only you can decide.
I have turned 50 and feel I am only at the beginning of things. I am ready for the growth and the challenge of life. I look forward to it, and I embrace it. Regardless of your age, I wonder how you face life.
“There must be a goal at every stage of life! There must be a goal!” – Maggie Kuhn
“Aging is not ‘lost youth’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength” – Betty Friedan
“This is a youth-oriented society, and the joke is on them because youth is a disease from which we all recover.” – Dorothy Fuldheim
“Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” – Franz Kafka
“You can only perceive real beauty in a person as they grow older.” -Anouk Aimee
Every day we are responsible for making many choices. We make choices about how we feel about everything and everybody. When you lack money, what opportunity do you have? When you lack love, what choice do you have? When you require praise and recognition for your greatness, what choice do you have? That is what I am thinking about today. In all things, we have a choice, it is given to us when we are born, and our choices dictate the experience of our lives. It can be easy to forget. When things go wrong, our mind makes the choices leading to the current lesson. Our destiny is shaped in these moments, and we have to be responsible for it. Here are some thoughts on options and how they affect your life.
Choosing
For every choice, the opposite is always available. A negative to a positive, a yin to the yang of things. Here is a small list I read the other day.
I am choosing to love rather than hate.
This is a simple choice in dealing with all people and situations. No matter what another person does, you have this choice. Of course, you have this choice about yourself as well.
Choosing to laugh rather than cry.
You can look at all situations from a variety of directions. You can choose to look at the negative and cry or the positive and laugh. It is a choice that you will make each day, and it will color your life one way or another.
Choosing to create rather than destroy.
We build things up or tear them down, including ourselves and our precious self-esteem. All people have greatness within them, and it is up to you to decide to create from it or destroy it. You are in control of this. Take responsibility.
Choosing to persevere rather than quit.
This is a decision that we face in life from when we are children until we finally end life, hopefully in old age. To persevere and keep on trying our best to be what we are capable of. Or to give in and leave our passion and potential unfulfilled. Quitting can become a nasty habit if you aren’t careful. Perseverance is a talent.
I am choosing to praise rather than gossip.
It is just as easy to speak well of someone to talk negatively. Praise the people’s good qualities in your life to their faces and when they are not around. Gossip is poison to all involved. It is that chatter of a small mind. They are looking to tear someone down to build themselves else up. Praise all, and good things will come to you. It will start inside of you. Gossip and reap those “rewards.”
I am choosing to heal rather than wound.
This is a simple choice to be a force of wellness rather than destruction. All people have experienced pain, and your words and actions toward other people will heal or wound. The decision is all up to you. You don’t have to like everyone to approach them with a gentle understanding that heals rather than a harsh judgment that wounds.
Choosing to give rather than take.
What you give in life is most often what you receive in the end. If you choose to steal then, people will take from you. The act of stealing will lead to something else being stolen. Give freely, and all things will come to you. Steal selfishly, and all will be taken away. That is the way the world works.
Choosing to act rather than procrastinate
The action is the key to success. All the planning in the world and great ideas are nothing without the effort to make it all happen. Do things, try things, experiment, and look for a way to thrive. Do nothing, and nothing will ever happen. Action destroys fear and enlightens knowledge. You will know!
I am choosing to grow rather than to rot.
If you do not practice your talents and hone them, they will rot like a garden that is not being tended. If things are managed and cared for, you can yield delicious fruit, or the vegetables will rot on the vine if left alone. You are the one making the decisions for your garden, and I am the best.
I am choosing to pray rather than curse.
It doesn’t matter if you are religious or not; the act of silent contemplation is vital to growth and self-understanding. I don’t believe it matters how you get to this space, but it does matter that you get there. Recognize a force behind all of life. The magic that makes hearts beat and love occurs. It is a choice of being grateful for and loving life or looking to blame someone for any perceived difficulty. It is your choice to curse God or the universe about the challenges in your life or be grateful for the lessons and growth that always result.
I am choosing to live rather than to die.
Whether we are truly living or not is a decision that we make each day. The activities in life are unimportant to me. It is the appreciation we have for the present moment that counts. If you are looking at the past, you are not here. If you are worried about the future, you are not here. If you are not here, then you are not alive. Be here, see what is happening, appreciate the challenges and people you see. Even evil people can teach a valuable lesson. Learning lessons are what life is all about because that is growth. Death occurs when change doesn’t exist.
There are some choices you have every day. We are all responsible for the choices we make, and they are reflected in the value of our lives. The power is all inside you by making a choice each day.
“When you make a choice, you change the future.” ― Deepak Chopra
“Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep, for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as the latter.”― Paxton Hood.
“What you choose also chooses you.” ― Kamand Kojouri
“You are creating through your choices, even now. Choose wisely.”― Bryant McGill.
“Faith is life, knowledge is death, and choosing the correct one is wisdom.”
Change Improvement Development Adjust Transform Concept
Life is the most valuable thing you have. Even when your emotions bring you down and things are not very enjoyable, you still have an opportunity to allow your most positive ideas to permeate your existence. We all have down days because we are human, and in that existence comes with imperfections as a part of the bargain. But there are some things we can keep in mind which will allow us to make our lives happier and more fulfilling. It starts with your purpose in life, and whatever that is, you are the expression of that. It is to be better than I was yesterday, mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Not miles better, but at least 0.01% better. I am not sure I accomplish this every day, but I try to, and that seems to make a difference. What is your purpose? Where does your daily focus lie?
What’s Your Offer
The people you meet in your life will take on a reflection of your projected emotional attitudes and beliefs. If you think all people are judgmental, mean, short-sighted, and narrow-minded, then that is what you are going to see in those you meet. If you believe that people are mostly good and are not in life for purely selfish reasons, have open minds, open hearts, and kindness, then that is what you most often will find. Think about what you are offering the world with your attitude each day, and if you doubt, look at the people they meet, they are mirroring that attitude right back at you.
What you offer the world is going to determine your experience in it. If you are focused on yourself alone, what’s in it for you, and all of your thoughts revolve around you. Then the world is going to be an experience of selfishness. Conversely, suppose you look for what you can give to others in general. In that case, the world is a kind, open place with a seemingly unlimited reservoir of adventure and exciting happenings. This happens because you offer the world your best self and look for what you can contribute, not for what you can take. Make your best offer to the world every day, even when you don’t feel like it.
Choices Made
Our lives are a consequence of our decisions from the day we were capable of choice until the day it all ends. When you see something that isn’t quite where you want to be, it is easy to point the finger at this factor or that person, but the truth is the responsibility for it all lies right in the mirror, staring back at you. Your current employment is a result of your choices, as the future employment you are going to have will be. Your relationships are a result of your preferences as well. If you are angry or hurt, it is your choice to speak of it or bury it underneath. Things that are hidden underneath never stay there and seem to cause all sorts of problems in life. And life is all about choices.
The best thing is that we always have the option to make a different choice and change the direction of our life at any moment. If you made one poor choice or ten poor choices, it is time to make a different selection if they are not serving your life. You don’t have to complete a course on decisions or talk it over with someone else. Make a different choice, and your life will become something different. Many say it isn’t that simple, but we become attached to our beliefs and thoughts and can’t imagine it is that simple to change. But if you give it a try, look at a choice you have been making, which doesn’t serve you, and choose a different option that will bring you towards being the person you want to be. See what happens.
Finally
A change in choice will lead to a shift in what you are aware of and personal growth in life. That shift in awareness can allow you to take a negative situation and see the opportunities it presents. A job you dislike can propel you toward a career that is fulfilling and powerful. Every problem in life has contained the spark of success that can change everything for the better. We need to look at the issue as a challenge presented to make us better people and raise our awareness of our talents and skills.
As our awareness grows, we move along the path to new happiness levels and toward inner peace. All of the issues that continually reappear give us another chance to choose a different outcome and put lessons hard-learned into practice.
“When you find your WHY, you don’t hit snooze no more! You find a way to make it happen!”- Eric Thomas
“We all have a purpose in life, and when you find yours, you will recognize it.”- Catherine Pulsifer
“Success demands singleness of purpose.” – Vince Lombardi
“Anything and everything you have experienced has been purposeful; it has brought you to where you are now.”- Lyla Vanzandt
The lessons I have learned through hard times and good times are all encapsulated in this song. One of my all-time favorites. When you dream, dream big…………
In every moment, we have the power to create all our experiences in life, and they are created by our exercising the power of choice. There are choices to make in all things, and the results of these choices will lead to the nature of your experience. It applies to everything and everybody. Our choices define our lives.
Simple choices
It all begins with simple decisions in life. Should I sleep in an extra 10 minutes? Or Should I get up and attack the day? This choice could make a difference in what you experience in a small way or a large one. The routine decisions we make each day have the potential to have a significant impact on our lives. If we choose to take a specific route to work or perform a particular task, which leads to a physical injury, we have decided to put ourselves in that situation.
It is also a choice to look at our responsibility for things. We are all going to experience things that are not so great in life. Taking responsibility for our decisions can be difficult, but once you do, leaving almost any problem behind and being proactive in your actions will come naturally.
It’s all How You React
Some things in life happen which we have no absolute control over. There are crimes committed against people’s will all the time. Our choices were not to be a part of that, but we are, and our options start when we become involved. It doesn’t matter if we are involved in a flood, a crime, or the breakup in a relationship. Our choices are always ours from the moment we become involved. How you choose to react is, in fact, your personal decision. Does it make you healthier? Or Does it destroy you?
How you react to all of your experiences are going to define your life. We build walls of separation to make sure that we are never vulnerable to being hurt again. Eventually, though the walls of separation become so many, it cannot be easy to connect in any natural way at all. So it is time to make a choice, drop the barriers, or keep them up. If you are lonely, the obstacles that you have created are going to be the reason. It is hard to find somebody to spend time with, let alone one who can manage the gymnastics necessary to get over and through the barriers, you have built around yourself. Drop them; it will be much easier.
Power in Vulnerability
When the barriers we have built to protect us drop, of course, there is a vulnerability there. It is our choice to be vulnerable and to be at risk of being hurt. All games involve risk; there is a risk of staying inside your barriers and dropping your resistance to change.
There is a risk in all situations in life, and being open enough to accept whatever comes your way may lead to the greatest reward. It is all up to the choices that you make. Being vulnerable is not a bad thing; it is only a thing. To live is to make decisions based on the information we have. Live big and take a chance on your goals or live small and take no chances and live inside your safe cocoon. There is always a chance of pain, but there is still a chance of something greater.
The choice is Always Yours
Choose and live your life!!
The choices in your life are happening all the time. You decided to read this; now you decide if you listen or agree with any of these thoughts, then what you do about it. Choose to ignore it. Choose to be moved by it. Choose to write a reply. Whatever decision you make, it is yours and yours alone. This choice and every subsequent decision will determine the day that you experience. The option is always and will always be yours and yours alone.
Take responsibility for your choices and allow life to happen. Experience it, and don’t let it destroy you. Let it make you healthy and wise.
“A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water. Even so, life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches, and thoughts. And the consequences whether good or bad of even the least of them are far-reaching.” — Sivananda.
“Be willing to have it so. Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.” — William James.
“All around us are the consequences of the most significant technological, and hence cultural, revolution in generations.” — Lawrence Lessig.
“The sower may mistake and sow his peas crookedly: the peas make no mistake, but come up and show his line.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson.
What do you think? There are thousands of thoughts created by your mind every day, and the tenor of the ones you pay attention to will dictate what you become and experience in life. That means you have the ultimate ability to choose who you are, what you can accomplish, and the overall experience of your life, just by monitoring your thoughts and making a choice to pay attention to the ones you want to represent you.
Take Time To Notice What Happens
As you become aware of your thoughts, take the time to see their work in your life. The ideas that you entertain about yourself are going to become real. Often we don’t even realize what thoughts we are letting control us. They are happening in the background, and they have been there in our subconscious for a long, long time. All of the thoughts that you accepted as accurate are there continually playing in a loop. Many of these are of harmful variety.
They express through the negative “ego” voice in your head. Telling you that you are not good enough or things never work out for you, or you always miss the fun stuff, or whatever negative thoughts you allow living in your mind. Notice how they come to you in a particular situation and then realize what is happening. They are not valid or accurate. If you think you can’t, you are right; you are also suitable if you think you can. Your thoughts will determine what you become.
Positive Thinking
There are a lot of negative stereotypes about positive thinking in the world. It is not just looking at the bright side of a situation, although that is a byproduct of having a more positive frame of mind. Positive thinking is turning your focus and thoughts toward emotions and actions which are positive. For example choosing love over hate, giving over taking, kindness over meanness, acceptance over judgment, etc.
Your mind is right; You create everything in your reality. Watch your thoughts always and see what changes when you entertain the positive side of the behavioral coin. Instead of judging someone who does something that angers you, look at them with softer eyes and understand the challenges they have faced to get where they are. Their struggles are not yours, be grateful for that.
You Are What You Think
So the next time, your life is giving you a hefty dose of not-so-pleasant things instead of looking outside of yourself to blame someone else. Look at the thoughts you have been entertaining. Accept responsibility for them and the actions that have resulted from them. We are all given the power of choice, and it determines our destiny. This decision is excellent news because it means we are always in control of the things we experience in life.
The mind is everything. What you think you become. ~ Buddha
All the events in our lives have good or bad value, and this value is given exclusively by our minds. Each day we get up and are barraged with activities and choices that determine what we accomplish and experience on that day. Success? Failure? Disappointment? These are all the ways we choose to perceive a situation. These are the things that are clearly up to us and those that are not. I think we let our minds run away with us and spend too much time focusing on all of the things that we can’t control. This attention is a reminder to myself and urges you to spend a bit of time today thinking about the thoughts we are entertaining.
thoughts of others, or the past. All of these things are done without much input from you, and to spend your time obsessing about them is a waste of time.
Secondly, constantly questioning your past decisions will make it much more difficult to enjoy what you do have today.
