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. 

Tame Your Mind and Release the Dragon

The other day I was helping my fifth grade son with his math homework and every time it looked like he understood the work whenever he tried the next problem it seemed like he never learned the mathematical concept.  What should have taken no more than thirty minutes to complete ended up taking four hours and a lot of frustration.  Fortunately for me, being an educator, I knew exactly how to show him what he needed to do and we got through it.  My son has always been very bright and has done well in school until recently.  It is not that he lacks intelligence or talent to become a successful student, but he has an uncontrolled mind.

"A man without an organized system of thought will always be at the mercy of a man who has one." — Edwin Louis Cole.

How many people  have big dreams to do wonderful and incredible things, but never manage to make those dreams become reality.  I believe one of the reasons most people never achieve their dreams are due to having an uncontrolled mind.  The key to achieving any kind of success is learning how to tame your mind. When your thinking process is brought under control you can then begin to create wonderful ideas and bring them to completion.  When a person creates and idea and is not thought through to completion the idea is not worth anything.  A fact that most people are not aware of is that thinking is a skill that is taught and not caught and so as a result there are many people who do not have control of their minds.  There are several ways to develop the ability to think in an organized fashion.  Some ways are reading books on a variety of subjects, playing an instrument, learning a technical skill such as how to build things for home improvement projects and games such as solitaire.  Once an uncontrolled mind is tamed it can then be released to be a creative and powerful force because we are not held back by others, but we are held back by our thinking.

Know What You Don't Like

Finding that place in your life where you are doing what you want to do and are successful at it can be tough.  Especially when you hear or read about someone who is successful and they just enjoy what they do so much.  Quite often people will live their lives in a reactive fashion and end up taking jobs out of necessity with the results being that they are miserable.  The key to avoiding this pitfall is to do what you are passionate about and as you may have heard when you do what you love it is not work.  But how do you find out what you love and are passionate about? 

A good place to start with is to find out what you do not like.  Doing this will help you to eliminate things you are not willing to do and help you to focus on finding your passion.  For example, if you are looking at working with children as a passion you can look at the age groups you know for sure that you do not want to work with.  You can also look at subjects, grade levels, setting and many other things to eliminate.  When you discover these non-negotiable things you know what to avoid because wouldn't it be such a waste of time to prepare for something you do not like?  Here is one thing to keep in mind.  Sometimes you might have to do what you do not like in order to do what you do like.  There are times when sacrifices have to be made in order to get to where you want to be.  It might mean going back to school even though you hate school to get the required credentials or you may be at the right company but have to work hours that you do not like until the right moment comes along.  This is where having a vision or a goal in place will keep you motivated in doing what you need to do.  At the end of the day in order to be happy and do what you love find out what you like and what you do not like.  Then focus on getting rid of what you do not like so you can focus on what you like. 

Managing a Negative Environment

We have all heard people say that it is important to surround yourself with the right people if you are looking at becoming successful.  This is absolutely true!  You must find people who are like minded, positive, and creative people who are either where you want to be or are going to where you want to be.  This would be a wonderful scenario if it were a perfect world.  The fact of the matter is that we have people in our lives that we cannot easily jettison because they may be siblings, a spouse, parent or even our boss.  The key is to learn how to navigate our path to success even with negative people in our lives.  Here are some tips on how to do this:

1.  Learn how to encourage yourself-   It is important to learn how to speak positively to yourself in spite of any negative influences.  You can to keep a daily journal where you can actually keep track of  your inner conversation.

2.  Stay focused on your vision-  By keeping your eye on the prize, your vision, this will help to keep you motivated.  Post your vision where you can see it constantly.

3.  Read, Read, Read-  By immersing yourself in books you will always find someone who can motivate you to achieve your dream. 

4.  Learn how to handle negative people-  The problem with negativity is that it is contagious.  It is important to know that people negative views are theirs and theirs alone unless you buy into it.  Listen but do not take ownership and do not try to change their view point.  Remember that negative people are people too and it is more to them than their negativity.

While it would be nice if we could distance ourselves from everyone that does not add to our lives in a positive way, in reality it is just not possible.  Negative people are people as well and are more than their negativity and in reality negativity is driving by some type of fear.  Love them anyways but remember that if you are going to reach for success you have to keep your eye on the prize.

The Reward for a Vision

If we all were willing to admit the issues of life can become overwhelming at times.  These experiences can make us want to give up at times or they can cause us to take our focus from our goals we are trying to accomplish and instead place it on the issue at hand.  The issues of life cannot be avoided because they can be compared to storms since sooner or latter a storm will come.  The key thing to remember is that storms do not last always!  Knowing this it is so important to keep your vision first and foremost so that you do not lose sight of what you are working towards.  A vision will motivate you and keep you encouraged even through difficult times.  The reward for the vision is seeing become reality.