Making Choices and Decisions

RL06-04-2015Every few days, I have the privilege of speaking at an arena event, business convention, or corporate meeting somewhere in the world. At each of these speeches, I can count on the audience being completely silent when I tell them, “You are where you are in every area of your personal and professional life because of the choices you’ve made in the past. Or if I were to put that another way, all of the decisions you have made in your entire life have brought you to this place, at this time, sitting in that chair right now.” I want all of my audiences and you, my readers, to understand that only when we accept the responsibility for the choices we have made that have brought us to this point can we then accept the potential surrounding the fact that tomorrow will be anything we want it to be based upon the decisions we make today.

I cannot tell you what constitutes the right choices or decisions in your life, but I can give you three tips that can help you through the process.

  • Choose what will make you happy tomorrow. Almost all decisions come with an option that will make you feel good now as well as a choice that will make you feel good later. As in most situations in life, delayed gratification will always lead to the destiny you seek.
  • Don’t make any decisions until you have to. Good decisions come from evaluating all the facts objectively. Making a decision before you have all the facts is a sure road to failure. While you don’t want to make decisions too late after some of the doors of opportunity have closed, you never want to make a decision before you have to.
  • Choose the option that will leave you more choices. When in doubt on the course of action to pursue, lean toward the one that gives you more choices and options for the future. Choices and options are a valuable commodity. If deciding on one course versus the other will keep your options open, this is always a benefit.

Seeking advice from experienced people is always a wise course of action, but never take advice from anyone who doesn’t have what you want. Overweight diet doctors, broke investment counselors, and incarcerated defense lawyers should be avoided. Once you have identified all your options, weighed all the information, and made the best decision you can, don’t look back, and never second guess. When it comes to making good choices and proper decisions, all you can do is all you can do.

As you go through your day today, build the tomorrow you want by making good choices and right decisions now.

Today’s the day!

Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network, as well as a published author of many books including The Ultimate Gift. He is also a columnist and motivational speaker. He may be reached at 5840 South Memorial Drive, Suite 312, Tulsa, OK  74145-9082; by email at Jim@JimStovall.com; on Twitter at www.twitter.com/stovallauthor; or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jimstovallauthor.

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