Choices

Good day friends!  Hope everyone has had a spectacular day!  Yesterday I talked a little bit about setting goals.  Why is that important to physical fitness, health, and lifestyle creation?  Well, basically, in many ways, a person without goals is like a boat without a rudder or paddle.  Without those key elements, the vessel goes where the wind or current takes it.  Same with people.  Now, some people have just been so perfectly trained by their perfect parents that they breeze through life on autopilot, almost unconsciously making perfect decisions, leading to a perfect life.  However, for the other 99.9% of folks, some direction is useful.  Hence, setting goals as the basis for our fitness plan, our health plan, our financial plan, etc.

Today I want to say something about choices.  This piggy-backs very well with goal-setting, because it has to do with the day to day implementation of our goals.  For instance, say it's the first day of the month.  You just set some great goals last night and today you're ready and raring to go.  Today you're going to eat healthy and exercise.  You head out to the kitchen and look in the fridge for something "good" to eat.  Your plan calls for some nice egg whites, perhaps, but there on the top shelf you see some leftover cheesecake from your restaurant visit Saturday night.  Decision time!!!  Then around lunchtime, you're on the road and short on time.  Maybe you've got some carrots in a baggie, but you're really hungry and there's a Chick-Fil-A right there, and come on, it's only one chicken sandwich, and you'll get the grilled one.  But the sandwich is one price, and the "meal" is only a buck more.  Wouldn't that be more financially responsible??  So there you are chowing down cole slaw and a soft drink, after that fine cheesecake breakfast, and BAM, the day is "ruined"!!

Okay, that's overly dramatic, but the point is that no matter how lofty our goals are and how grand our intentions may be, they are given wings only by the actions we take in pursuing them.  And this is the KEY POINT - every single action is the result of a relatively simple choice made immediately before it: "do this or do not do this."  To a large degree, humans cruise through their days on autopilot, with much of our activity driven by past programming, muscle memory - in short, habits.  If we want to achieve those great goals that we set for our health, fitness, finances, etc., we have to make the choices that take us in the right direction.  It's easy to do and easy to NOT do!!  I encourage you to examine the choices you are making each day, to determine whether they are taking you towards your desires.

Here's a great resource that you need to get your hands on, read, re-read, and utilize:  "The Slight Edge", by Jeff Olson.  In this great little book, the author goes into detail about the subject I've touched upon here today.  Pick up a copy and get your life going in the direction of YOUR CHOOSING today!  Peace to you, friendly reader!!  Jim