Monday, June 3, 1996

Are you living the life you choose?

Ask yourself: are you living the life you choose? The answer is...

Yes!

Because what you are, what you have, and what you do are all the result of choices you have made. You are where you are right now because of what you have chosen. If you don’t like where you are, you can waste a lot of time, effort and energy blaming someone or something for your situation. We all have obstacles, though, and success in life is based primarily on whether we chose to see those obstacles as excuses or as challenges. It makes all the difference in the world.

Your life is determined by your choices. You can chose to sit around all night watching TV, or you can choose to spend your evening enriching your mind, perhaps learning a new skill. You can choose to dull your senses with drugs and alcohol, or you can choose to keep your body in top shape with challenging exercise. You can choose to stand quietly in the corner at the party, or to use it as an opportunity to meet interesting people.

Surprisingly, the important choices aren’t the big ones. It is the cumulative effect of the little choices that makes the biggest difference. We may agonize for weeks or months over what school to attend, what career to pursue or what job offer to accept. These are what we consider big, important choices. In reality, though, our life is determined more by the “little” choices that we make every day: Should I make that extra phone call? Should I volunteer for that project? Should I introduce myself to the new department manager? Should I have another piece of cheesecake? Should I roll over and sleep for another 20 minutes? Should I watch that re-run of Sienfeld for the 4th time?

Choices, not chances, determine our destiny. What do you choose?

— Ralph Marston

Take off the training wheels Something to look forward to next

Copyright ©1996 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All Rights Reserved. The Daily Motivator is provided for your personal, non-commercial use only. Other than personal sharing, please do not re-distribute without permission.