Thine Own Choice

“I discovered I always have choices and sometimes it's only a choice of attitude.” -Judith M. Knowlton

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 your 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. Maybe you turn off that television and start talking to your spouse and children.

Deciding not to do anything is a choice as well.

Using that "non" choice will not get you where you want to be. You will have turned over your life to chance. Take an example of not making a choice regarding your health. What you decide to do or not do can dramatically impact your life. Diseases and medical conditions are treated by physicians and we have to make choices regarding each.

We have a choice to do nothing about our physical state or get up off the sofa 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 me. What I'm talking about is improving the quality of your life.

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

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 your's to decide. But if you want to change the life you live, then stand up, make a choice and than step out boldly.

Live a great life and stay inspired my friends.

Climbing Those Stairs

"Don't aim at success--the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the byproduct of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it." -Viktor Emil Frankl

People will respond to the question, "what do you want most in life" by saying, "success". As defined, success is;

1. 1. the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.
2. 2. the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.
3. 3. a successful performance or achievement: The play was an instant success.
4. 4. a person or thing that is successful: She was a great success on the talk show.

Success is something that defines us or signals the achievement of a goal. But is it the final attainment and being defined as successful the real want? I believe success or the idea of being successful is just a "rest stop" along the way. Real success is the "process" or journey we take to achieve it.

Simply achieving success of a goal is not the final endpoint. Achievement of one success is a step towards even more that you can do. It is merely one end point or stopover on the entire journey of your life. As we move from one point in life to the next, there will be many successes.

Consider each success in your life as a step on the stairway you are building. It is another level in the story of your life, not an ending. Focus on the process and each success will motivate you even further.

Life is a journey that continues until you are no longer able to continue. Let successes be the tale of that journey and not the end points.

Stay inspired my friends.

Compassion Gained

Things happen in life to all sorts of different people, with different backgrounds and different income levels. It is all relative to your own place or status in life. Take for example what happened to billionaire Steve Wynn. A great and valuable Picasso painting being shown to friends is accidentally punctured...by the owner himself!

A lot of value in that painting was gone in an instant. All it took was the blink of an eye so imperceptable there would have been no way to prevent it. At this point you are probably wondering why we should feel bad for someone with so much money.

But then you must stop and consider the option of feeling just a bit of compassion. A beautiful work of art, an original painting that can be repaired is also an object that meant a lot to a person. That person may have more then you or I, but still they are a person.

One might say there is a limit of course to compassion. We certainly know that Mr. Wynn will be just fine in his loss. But when it comes to the misfortune of others, your instinct should not be to immediately 'pile on'. Find it within yourself to have a reasonable amount of compassion. It might just be you the next time having lost something of importance.

"Make no judgments where you have no compassion." - Anne McCaffrey

Overcome To Achieve Greatness

"For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

So here I am, currently flying at 36,000 feet in a Delta 757 airplane, writing and making my way to Seattle. The landscape below me is much too far away for me to discern anything other than a few roads, mountains or fields.

If I look really hard though, I can pick out certain things such as certain large bodies of water or rivers famous to all. The most famous of course being the Mississippi River and as we passed over the Great Salt Lake. All look small and rather insignificant from such a long distance.

Even the Rockie Mountains and the Cascades look tame from such a far distance. They appear to be mere road bumps on our way to a destination. The goals we set for ourselves are at the end of that journey. Our destination looks easy from a distance.

While the distance seems to be much too far, the obstacles do not look all that intimidating. But as we get closer. As we come in with the distance being shorter, those obstacles all of a sudden get bigger. As we see them grow taller and wider, the mountains tops are greater and the rivers much broader than we expected.

It is at this point we might become discouraged. It is at this point many people may quit. What it reminds me of are the pioneers that made their way across the the great plains. These brave souls had a goal in mind and that was to find the west coast, to find fortune in the California, to find new opportunity.

Can you imagine as they slowly made their way across the flat lands, the heat, the wind and everything else they had to endure. I imagine them getting well into the area we now know as Colorado, only to be greated by the peaks of the Rockie Mountains.

The discussions that must have taken place had to have been heated. How far would they have to go. Would they make it before the cold and snow of winter set it. Some people must have said forget it, we'll stay here and go no further. They gave up on their dreams and settled for what they had.

Others pushed on, seeing the mountain tops as gateways to their dreams. They didn't seem them as obstacles blocking their way. They knew to rise up to the top would allow them to see the destination even clearer.

Many of those people made it through, dreams fulfilled and greatness achieved. The mountains, the rivers, canyons, or wide lakes did nothing to deter them from grabbing hold of what they wanted.

You will have similar obstacles in life. There will be mountains to face and wide rivers to cross, but each can be overcome and they will be overcome. Keep reaching, keep moving forward and move those mountains, part those waters and reach your destination in life. I know you can.

Stay inspired my friends.