Decisions are useless, you have to make a choice.

This month is wrapping up.  It's time to stop and do a little assessment on how things are going.  Remember the two months ago when you were all excited about everything you'd get accomplished this year?  How's it going so far? Sure, we still have many months ahead but we all know how fast time flies by.

At the start of the year, I set a few goals.  In actuality, I made several decisions about the direction of 2017.  Making a decision is a great starting point.  It's like getting into a car and turning the keys.  But, I gotta be honest.  Most "decisions" take us absolutely nowhere.  There is another key element required if you actually want to achieve your goal.

The critical element that we absolutely need to employ is our power of choice.

When I said that I wanted to maintain a lifestyle that creates a healthy/desirable weight, I made a decision.  Decisions are great!  But they're essentially empty promises.  They have zero substance.

In order for decisions to work, you need to invoke your power of choice.

choice

CHois/

noun

1. 1.

   an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities.

   
   

   "the choice between good and evil"

   
   

   synonyms:

   option, alternative, a possible course of action

I know that we sometimes use the word "decision" and "choice" interchangeably.  But I want to detail what differentiates them.

Decisions- Based on the past (or at one point in time).  
Choice-Based on what you opt to do currently or will do in the near future. 

According to the Internet, we make around 35,000 choices a day.  Most (if not all of them) mirror choices we've already made in the past.  We keep walking down the exact same path even though we've told ourselves that things will be different.

This cycle keeps repeating itself because most of our actions are dictated by our subconscious.  Our subconscious is a bit lazy. It likes to use our past actions as the framework for our future.  The less mental power involved, the better.  It wants to conserve mental energy. It wants to keep things exactly the same.

But you've made the decision to change some things about your current situation.  This means you have to go against your default nature and consciously make choices that allow your desired outcome to manifest.  Creating change and making new choices isn't all that easy. We have to battle against internal resistance and well-established habits.  But, new choices have to be made on a daily basis, otherwise we'll never experience anything new.

Of the 35,000 or so choices we make every day, we only have to alter about a handful of them. If I chose to go for a walk in the mornings instead of staying in bed longer, I'd get to experience a healthier body.  If I choose to block out an hour a day to work on an outstanding project, I might be impacting my income in the months ahead.  New choices will result in new outcomes 100% of the time.

Part of the reason why I implemented the 7-day  experiment was to integrate new choices into my week.   It's a no-pressure reminder to follow through on my decision on a daily basis.  Seven days is short enough to remain consistent and just enough time experience results.  There are two types of results. First, the immediate impact of repeatedly making the choice.  Eventually, the long-term result of making that choice will surface.

Remember that with everything we do......there are countless possibilities. You can wake up at 7:00 am or you can get up 45 minutes earlier to work on something that you decided to do months earlier.  Even if your goal seems big and outlandish, all you need to do is figure out the series of choices that get you as close as possible.