“Your belief’s affect your choices. Your choices shape your actions. Your actions determine your results. The future you create depends upon the choices you make and the actions you take today.”
–Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
In the last two months we’ve been “social distancing” and “self-isolating”. I have gone from thinking “WHHAATTT???” to “UGHH!” to wondering “When will this end and what will the world look life in the aftermath?”
In other words, what will be our “new normal?”
I am sure a lot of you are tired, frustrated, discouraged and maybe even angry.
This week, I have been feeling like I’ve been run over by a truck combined with a very strong impulse to run away and go somewhere new. To a place that would excite me to be alive again.
I don’t hate my life, far from it – I just want to be free again.
How are you feeling?
Do any of those thoughts resonate with you?
Instead of the old “Keep your chin up!” and “The world is full of sunshine and rainbows” type of email, I thought I would get real and give you some information on how the seemingly insignificant daily choices you make, greatly impact the world around you.
The most important point you MUST grasp is:
EVERY SINGLE DAY, YOU GET TO MAKE CHOICES & EACH CHOICE YOU MAKE DEFINES WHO YOU ARE AND YOUR WORLD.
In essence, you create your world every single day.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
“In every single thing you do, you are choosing a direction. Your life is a product of choices.”
– Dr. Kathleen Hall
You are creating your personal world on a daily basis, and there is an infinite amount of choices you may be making on autopilot.
For instance, when you wake up, here are 5 basic choices:
1. What to eat for breakfast? Healthy shake or a Cinnabon?
2. What to wear? Sweats, try to look moderately decent (jeans and a shirt) or dress up even if you aren’t leaving the house?
3. Ladies, How are you styling your hair and are you wearing makeup today?
4. What are today’s tasks and which tasks will you will ACTUALLY complete and what will you leave for tomorrow?
5. What room of the home will you be working from?
Those are a lot of choices and this all happens in the first 20 minutes from the moment you wake up. (Note: There are many other choices involved if you have kids, animals to take care of etc. I am keeping it very basic.)
How many of those choices do you make on autopilot?
Ask yourself:
Do you eat the same breakfast every morning?
Do you wear the same type of clothes or do you switch it up?
2 BIG TAKEAWAYS
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
– Albert Einstein
There are 2 big takeaways I want to share with you:
1) To have what you want, you must make the right decisions that will lead to the outcome you desire.
Are you truly making the right decisions for the life you want to live?
In other words, are you eating a breakfast full of fat and then expecting to actually see your weight drop?
Are you working in a room you detest that has awful vibes and makes you feel disempowered and uninspired?
You’d be surprised how many people think that by making zero changes to their diet, they will lose weight. They won’t,
Yet, many of us have the same routine day in and day out and expect everything to change!
2) It’s all connected
In our society, we are taught that each aspect of our life is a silo.
– Zig Ziglar’s Wheel of Life.
Most of us picture our lives with each of these buckets being a SEPARATE CONTAINER that we must work on.
The only problem?
That’s not the answer. The correct answer is:
ALL OF THESE CONTAINERS ARE CONNECTED!
Let’s take a quick look at how each silo is connected.
If you have an unstable career,
Your Financial silo will suffer as you will worry about money,
Your Spiritual silo could shut down as you may feel unloved and unsure of what to do next,
Your Physical silo might be abandoned – you may stop going to the gym to save money and your physical body will pay the price for it,
Your Intellectual silo could expand due to you frantically trying to figure a way out of the financial mess you are in, yet also make you feel alone with the heavy burden of financial stress on your shoulders,
Your Family silo will be overwhelmed with pressures to get back on track, and
Your Social silo could completely fold or be off balance because you are desperately trying to escape your current reality thru extra curricular activities (drinking etc.).
This is all happening, because your Career sector is out of whack.
Does that make sense?
Every choice you make affects you and every silo of your life, whether you know it or not is connected.
WHAT IS THE RIGHT QUESTION?
What we should be striving for is balance and happiness.
Let’s go back to the main choices you have each morning and see how they are connected.
Here are you morning choices:
What to eat for breakfast? Healthy shake or a Cinnabon?
Bottom line: What you eat affects your mood and how you interact with your family, the mental capacity to get your tasks done, and your physical body.
What to wear? Sweats, try to look moderately decent (jeans and a shirt), or dress up even if I’m not leaving the house?
How are you styling your hair and are you wearing makeup today?
Bottom line: What you wear and how you look dramatically affects how you feel, which dictates how you interact with others, how you go about your day and if you feel empowered or disempowered.
We are all aware that the type of clothing you wear speaks volumes about who you are as a person. Yet lately, so many of us, myself included, just pull something out of the dresser and don’t put too much thought into the outward effect our appearance has.
Check out this short post from the BBC showing pictures of people’s choices in clothing here.
What are today’s tasks and, which ones will you will ACTUALLY complete and what will you leave for tomorrow?
Bottom line: How you decide which tasks to work on DIRECTLY IMPACTS YOUR BUSINESS. If you carve out time to get the most urgent tasks completed first, your day will run smoothly. If you procrastinate, get stuck scrolling Instagram and Facebook, your most important tasks could slip through the cracks.
What room of the home will you be working from?
Bottom line: Every room has a vibe and ambiance and the room you choose to work in will either move you towards your goals, or take you farther from them. Where you work impacts you, your work and how you feel on a daily basis.
If you have a work area that is homey yet professional and gets you motivated to crush it, you are in the right place. If you work in the Lanai of your home, it may be beautiful, yet it could be distracting as you see the sun calling to you, asking you to go to the beach.
IF YOU THINK YOU CAN DO IT, YOU ARE RIGHT!
Each day, every choice you make impacts you, how you feel about yourself, your emotions, your happiness and your business. Each choice affects those around you (including your pets) and how you think and feel about yourself.
You have the power to choose the type of life you want to live.
You can take control and create whatever type of life you want, and you can control your behavior and choices. So, today I ask you –
What choices are you making on a daily basis?
Is what your choosing bringing you closer to your goals by enhancing your emotions and ability to concentrate & feel good about yourself?
Or is it pushing you farther away from your goals and bringing in distractions, lack luster performance, and making you feel as though you are in a rut?
Begin to pay attention to how you run your day, how you feel and where you can make small changes that will yield big results in your life.
– Julie Saillant