It's Your Choice

One of the great equalizers in life is the fact that every person has one thing that everyone else has.  The power of choice. This ability to make choices is so powerful that it can make or break a person so great care must be exercised in using it. You can choose what kind of day that you are going to have, what kind of person you will be among other things. One thing everyone must be aware of is that we live or die by the choices we make. The ability to choose is what sets us apart from other living beings. The ability to choose is based on free will and the ability to think and decide for ourselves which is also a part of personal freedom.  When the freedom of choice is taken away or we perceive that it has we do not like that and we feel like our freedom has been taken away.  In order to achieve success and live the life you desire it is very important to become much better at making choices. 

1. Become More Informed
It is very important to become as informed as you can in the area that you must make a choice.  Whether that be deciding whom to marry, choosing between job offers, etc.  The more information you have the better equipped you in making the right choice. There are many ways to get the information needed such as books, the internet, etc.

2.  Seek Counsel
It is often very wise to seek counsel from people in your life whom you can trust and also have life experience.  They can help you see the situation from a different perspective that you may not have considered.  You can not speak to just anyone because they may not have your best interest at heart.  People that you seek counsel from not only need to have wisdom but they need to have a certain level of success in their lives as well.

3.  Learn How to Trust You Instincts
Your instincts, if used correctly, can take you a long way in making the most of the power of choice.  Many times we ignore what or instincts are telling us and we end up saying, "Something told me to."  Take the time to learn you inner voice by spending quiet time listening, in prayer or meditation. 

4.  Own Your Choices
When making choices you must own them.  In owning your choices you must take the good with the bad and most importantly you must learn from the mistakes of making the wrong choice. If making a particular choice comes with some negatives aspects but are out weighed by the positives learn to be satisfied and take the negatives in stride. 

The power of choice is one of the things all humans have in common and is a great equalizer.  In order to live the best life possible learning how to become better at making choices is the key to not only to success.  Unfortunately, we are not going to hit a home run with every choice we make but it is very crucial to learn from our mistakes and to own the choices we make. 

Right Place, Right Time

I have often wondered why certain people end up being successful and why others don't.  This has been a puzzle for me for the last few years.  I have seen people do everything that is required for success such as graduating from college and working hard but still not find success.  So if doing everything required doesn't guarantee success then what does?  After years of studying successful people I have found that they were in the right place at the right time to take advantage of an idea or opportunity.  Trying to do something at the wrong time in the wrong place often leads to the failure of achieving success.  Sometimes people experience failure at trying to start a business or some other venture at the wrong time or place to end up achieving success later down the road.  Failure is feedback and will help to propel you forward if you are willing to learn the lessons it provides.  What is interesting is that not only being in the right place at the right time a key ingredient to success but knowing how to recognize it when you are there.   There are many people who missed out on opportunities or being with their soul mates because they did not recognize the right place and right time.  In order to recognize the right place and right time for opportunities it is important to become in tune with your surroundings.  It is not enough to just be there but you must learn to pay attention to what is going on around you or to put it another way learn to gauge the atmosphere.  Intuition plays a big part in this.  My mother often said to me that it is important to pay attention to what your gut is telling you.  How often have you said to yourself, "Something told me...."  That is your gut.  Your intuition must be paired with your knowledge and experience in order for you to get the most impact.  I believe that everyone has the ability to this but it is often ignored because we either expect things to be easier than what they are.  Hard work is still very important.  I believe that learning to recognize opportunities is a spiritual concept. Learn how to quiet your mind and learning how to focus your thoughts or meditate.  Many people are focused on their outside influences that they never stop to look within and listen to their inner voice.  Then learn how your inner voice (gut) sounds and learn how to trust what it says.  Also prepare yourself for what ever your goal is because if the opportunity arises at the right place and time and you are not prepared it will not feel very good to see it pass you by.  Being in the right place at the right time is a very important key to success but you have to recognize when it is upon you.  Investing in yourself and learning how to follow your intuition will go a long way to getting you where to go.

Change What you Can, Your Perspective

There are many things in life that we do not have control over and just can not change.  Unfortunately, that is just a fact of life that we all have to come to grips with and although, there are many things out of our control we are empowered to change the things we do have control over.  There is one area that is probably the biggest thing you can change that will have a profound effect on your life which is your perspective. The beautiful thing about life is that everyone sees it from a different perspective and therefore interprets the same experience differently. This adds diversity to the world and this can be seen through art, music and other avenues of creativity.  There are times when we can see things in a negative light and it prevents us from finding a creative solution or recognizing the good in a situation.  When this happens progress can stall and if we dwell there long enough depression can set in.  Learning to see things different is a skill that takes time to learn but once you get a feel for it the same life that you live will become entirely new.  Here are some steps to changing your perspective:

1.  Think Positive:  The analogy of seeing the glass half full or seeing half empty is a great example of positivity.  Positive people tend to be more successful and attract more opportunities for success due to the fact that they are more open to it mentally.  In the case of negative people they look for reasons for things not to succeed and therefore attract failure.

2.  Speak Positively:  Be careful to use words that are positive more in your every day speaking.  This will not only have an effect on your life but on others as well.  Of course you do have to recognize when things are not going right or when you experience bad things bit the goal is not to stay there any longer than you have too.  Your words are a gateway into your thinking and will expose you as being a positive or negative thinker. 

3.   Embrace Problems:  We are conditioned to think that problems are a bad thing and so we go to any length to avoid them.  Problems in and of themselves are not a bad thing.  A problem that presents itself is showing that what you were doing is not working and that should cause you to think more creatively. 

Things do often happen that are out of our control but we can control how we see those events and how they affect our lives.  By learning how to change our perspective we can experience life in a totally different way and as a result attract more opportunities for success in all facets of our lives.