Just One Decision

“Every moment is a moment of decision, and every moment turns us inexorably in the direction of the rest of our lives.” ― Mary Balogh

One decision can change the outcome.

Just one decision can alter one or many lives.

With that one decision, how will you respond?

The Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League were one yard away from scoring in final minutes of the championship game. Very likely the trophy was on the other side of the goal line. Only three feet to go as the decision came in from the sidelines.

The New England Patriots were defending their stake to claim the trophy. It was a four point game and a touchdown by Seattle would have nearly sealed the game. All seemed potentially lost and then one decision changed the entire course.

A decision to throw a pass when running the ball was clearly the high percentage call.

The decision resulted in the opposing team intercepting the football and winning the game.

This time the victory for New England was not a clear victory but a gift handed to them. And this time Seattle clearly outsmarted themselves from victory. But that is what one decision can do in life. That one decision we wish we could change.

All of that is football, a sport, a game played for our entertainment purposes.

Real life decisions are played out everyday. Not only with game deciding decisions but also in the decisions we make regarding family, love, and life. These singular decisions have varied consequence on our lives and of those around us.

One decision can change the outcome.

Just one decision can alter ours or many others lives.

With that one decision, how you respond determines how things move forward.

Good decisions are never fully explored because we move on, happy, content, nothing to cause concern. But a bad decision becomes the central focus of all we do. We go through regret, pain, anger and a host of other emotions. Our lives begin to stall.

There are some people that never recover from the pain or consequence of a bad decision. They have no capacity or will to move beyond and turn the decision back into something positive in their life. They are forever stuck in the mud unable to bring themselves out of it.

When a decision is made, good or bad, where you find yourself is not an endpoint but a new starting point towards your goals. It is a launch pad where you stand, with new knowledge that will bring you closer to your target.

One decision can change things but one decision can also be the greatest thing in your life.

Stay inspired my friends.

Price of Choices

“Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice..” -Wayne Dyer

In everything we do, there is choice of some sort that can be made. It could involve not having enough money. Where and how much to spend or even if to spend on a certain item. It could be a need to change your living style to meet your income. Or taking on a second job. Maybe you could even take classes to improve you job skills and get a promotion.

Choices exist, we only need to be willing to make them.

It could be a destructive relationship you are in. There is so much that can be said about relationships, but choices do exist. Or how about the lack of a relationship? The choice might be to turn off the television and go to places where people gather.

Deciding not to do anything is a choice as well. But using that one will get you absolutely nowhere.

The health you have can be impacted by making certain choices. Disease and medical conditions are treated by physicians, with choices to be made. But we also have the choice to take care of our physical state. To again, to turn off the television and take a walk, little steps to help improve your health. I'm not here to say you will live longer, although statistics would support that. What I'm talking about is improving the quality of your life.

Will you make a choice to improve the quality of your life?

What price will you pay for the choices you make?

Choice is there for the taking and you need to make one. We each are given one life and of course, how you live it is yours to decide. But if you want to change the life you live, then stand up, choose and then step out boldly.

Stay inspired my friends.

What Guides Your Decisions

"Virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

In his book Faith In The Game, Tom Osborne writes "it seems too few decisions are made in our culture out of a concern for the common good. Too often money and self-interest are the only factors given much weight. Loyalty has become an almost forgotten attribute."

Have you found yourself making decisions in this manner?

Having a positive and serving attitude in life means one has to give less attention to self and more to others. It does not mean giving up the idea that money is important. But to base your decisions solely on money or self-interest will not generate long term results. Do not get me wrong, both money and self have to be considered. Yet the common good also has to be factored into the process.

Your decisions in life effect others around you. Making decisions should also involve thought to what impact it will have beyond self. We must remember that many things should be considered in our decision making process. Just try not to let money and self-interest become the driving force.

“Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.” - Henri Frederic Amiel (Swiss writer)

On a side note, I wish to congratulate Dr. Tom Osborne on his retirement from the University of Nebraska. Tom has had an amazing career both in the academics, athletics and government that is too much to write in this article. What I can say about Tom is that he has always been a leader among leaders while staying grounded in life.

On Saturday night, March 9, Tom was honored by many of his fans and others. He will be missed in the day-to-day University of Nebraska Cornhusker athletics. Thank you Dr. Tom and to Nancy his wife for so many years of greatness.

Lastly, I would like to say Happy Birthday to my departed brother John. We miss you and love you.

Stay inspired my friends.

Getting Over the Bridge

"When a decision has to be made suddenly, experience and gut feeling is sometimes all you can go with." -Joseph Primm

Here I was coming up I-278 towards the interchange with I-87 near the borough of Manhattan in New York City. If I successfully navigated this during rush hour, I would successfully make it out to my hotel in Teterboro, NJ. I wasn't worried because getting lost doesn't phase me too much, just the idea of not figuring it out would have bothered me.

So negotiating the various lanes, lack of signs and a 'general' map of the route, instinct had to work. I had prepared or so I thought, the maps looked rather easy but sometimes reality is a bit more harsh. Life tends to be that way most times as well.

We plan and plan, writing down on paper those goals in perfect order. If we do this first, exit to the right here and cross over the bridge to the next step; then everything will work out perfectly. But than you come to the interchange of I-87 and I-95, looking for exit 7S. Check out the map and then see what the reality is.

You and I both have had dreams for what we wanted our lives to be. Each of us held onto those visions and were working slowly towards them. Life than got in the way, the reality of circumstance and failed decisions.

What do you do when that happens and life needs you to be in the left lane when in fact your trapped in the right hand lane? What do you do when all of a sudden there are multiple exit choices and no proper signs to guide you? What happens if the GPS on your life conks out and a decision has to be made now?

You trust in yourself and simply make a decision. You go with that and adjust from it. The traffic in my life prevented me from going the original direction I wanted to. I couldn't get over into that left lane and my life took a vastly different course. So I took the road handed to me, adjusted my plans and moved on.

The destination may look different, but it is one filled with happiness and contentment. I made a decision not to force myself back into the left lane. My experience and gut feeling told me to go ahead and stay in the lane and take that course. It took me to where I needed to be, it got me across the George Washington Bridge and my best life.

You can achieve your best life, a happy life even when faced with making a quick decision. Let your instincts guide you when needed, prepare at other times, but take the road and let it lead you to your destination in life.

The Road Not Taken

"We are never prepared for what we expect." ~James A. Michener

Robert Frost wrote a poem that is sometimes mistakenly called "The Road Less Traveled." It is a well-known poem and one that will make you give pause to think about decisions made in life.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergroth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference


There are generally two interpretations of this poem. The popular one is where people take the last couple lines literally. They view them as being individualistic, not going with the crowd.

Myself, I prefer to take the poem as an ironic interpretation when reading those lines in the entire context of the poem. It seems to me that the poem is about making decisions in life, and rationalizing the decisions that we make, either with joy or pain.

We move through our lives planning and trying to figure out where our decisions will lead us. And even though we plan, we never seem to be fully prepared for where we end up. So whether we plan to take a road less traveled, the freeway or sit by the side of the road; are you ready to deal with the outcome of your decisions?

My advice is to continue with your plans, make your decisions and reach your destinations. But also be ready to accept the decisions you have made. It is equally important to achieving all that you want in life.