New Year’s .... Choice or Chance?

Chance - Good Luck! 

May the winds of favor and good fortune find their way to your sails!

Choice you say!  Splendid! 

I’m a HUGE believer in CHOICE!  What do you choose for 2011? 

So often we look at our list of wants, dreams, desires and we ‘resolve’ to do it all... at once! 

We’re going to:

1. Lose the weight, exercise, and get ‘in shape’
2. Improve our finances, pay off our debt, curb our spending, save more
3. Get ‘right’ with God and live a more spiritually enhanced life
4. ‘Make time’ for ourselves
5. Communicate more compassionately with our family and friends
6. Redecorate our room, our home, our office - make them more inviting
7. Perform better at work, get a promotion, land that ‘perfect’ job
8. Vacation, play, dance, and experience all life has to offer with wild abandon

.....And the list goes on.  We want to do it all! This is a new year, a new beginning!  This is just the time to make it all happen.  We simply have to choose!  Well, yes, and no.  Yes, we do have to choose. AND, we have to act, behave, and execute in ways which support our choices.

First, I don’t believe it’s a good idea to resolve to ‘do it all‘ - at least not all at once. 

While I do believe in setting ambitious goals, I also believe we’re more effective when we focus and prioritize.  Choose one or two aspects of your life you’d really like to be different in 2011.  If you really work and succeed at affecting positive change in those one or two areas, you will certainly see a ripple effect of positive influence in all other areas of your life.

It’s important to set ourselves up for success.  While I don’t claim to have the perfect recipe for success, I do believe there are important ingredients we should all consider:

1. Vision - where our purpose, passion, and desire connect
2. Moment by Moment - where real choice and action live.. in the moment!
3. Big Rocks (with space for the Pebbles & Sand)
4. Mindset Matters - Understanding Our Motive(s)
5. Attitude / Gratitude / The Story We Tell
6. 1+1=3 (The power of YOU and your relationships)

For this blog we’re going to explore ‘Moment by Moment’ and ‘Big Rocks with Pebbles and Sand.’  I’ll work with the other ingredients as we move into the new year.  For now...

Moment by Moment

If you were to look at a stream of water coming out of your faucet, at first glance you see a steady stream, a continuous flow of water.  If you were to slow that stream down, really slow it down and take a much closer look, what you would see are millions, maybe trillions of tiny water droplets each following the other.  Now imagine each one of those tiny water droplets as moments in time.  Well, that’s where real CHOICE and ACTION live, in each and every moment.  We have the freedom and responsibility to CHOOSE!  Do the choices we make and the actions we take align with and support our desires?  Our wants?  Our resolutions?  In each and every moment we choose, and our choices either move us closer towards that which we aspire to achieve, or (our choices) move us further away.  Moment by moment by moment... we are in CHOICE and IN ACTION!  BE IN CHOICE and choose those actions and behaviors which move you closer to your wants, dreams, desires, and life aspirations!

Small example: If you want to lose weight and you’re in the check out line at Target, you will be faced with a choice:  your favorite candy bars will be conveniently in front of you, calling out to you... (mine are Twix & Milky Way).  For only .69 cents you can be enjoying the short lived pleasure of these treats... OR you can go back to the produce section and pick up an apple!  (Maybe you already have one in your cart.)  But right there and then, in the very moment of ‘checking out’ - you are in choice!  Which will you choose?  Which (choice) moves you closer to your desired outcome and which moves your further away?  Slow down, and then choose.

Big rocks (with space for the pebbles and sand).

Many of us have either heard or seen the example of how to fit a few large rocks, a lot of pebbles and even more sand into a medium sized jar.  At first glance you might think ‘it can’t all fit.‘  A child will often pour in the sand and the pebbles only to find there’s no room for the big rocks. The jar in this example is 2011 - a new year.  The big rocks are those one or two aspects of your life you absolutely want to affect positive change in.  What are they?  It’s up to you, but you need to make them a priority - put them in first!  Focus on these one or two areas with everything you’ve got.  When you’re forced to choose between making them happen, or not, make them happen!  Once you have these one or two big rocks in (your jar) you can pour in the smaller pebbles - these are your other life matters that while still very important don’t take the same kind of deliberate intention or focus as the rocks.  Lastly, pour in the sand.  The sand are all the small issues and ‘to do’s’ that easily take up the rest of the space in the jar, the sand quickly and easily fills up all the space between the big rocks and the smaller pebbles.  There you go, you have your most important priorities and new year’s goals contained within your jar of 2011!

 

New Year’s... Choice or Chance?  You decide!

Always my best,
--Todd

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