FRIDAY REVIEW: CHOICES
What sort of life are you choosing? Here are a few choice-related posts you may have missed. Click on the link to read the full message.
“Words empty as the wind are best left unsaid.”
“Easy Street is a blind alley.”
Tag Archives: choices
too many choices
“You have too many choices. The process of elimination is your sedimentation tank. What remains are the priorities.”
—Laurent F. Carrel, Messages from Melanie
Image from brainfodder.org
When was the last time you visited a big-box supermarket? It has been estimated that the number of food products in these megastores are in the tens of thousands. Clearly it is impossible to get everything in our shopping cart, so we all go through some process of elimination. We use criteria such as healthiness, value, shelf life, and taste as factors to make our choices.
EXERCISE:
What criteria do you currently use in your personal and professionals worlds to filter out unhealthy or undesirable options that do not serve your highest priorities?
How could being more selective improve your world?
Rainbows Won’t Wait
“The work will wait while you show the child the rainbow, but the rainbow won’t wait while you finish the work.”
-attributed to Patricia Clifford, Film Producer
Image from Flickr by Elvis Kennedy
Do you sometimes feel life has passed you by?
Do you tell yourself you will have time – on the weekend, on the vacation, when you retire – to get to the things that matter?
Are you missing too many rainbows?
We cannot schedule the rainbows of our lives – we must seize precious moments as they occur.
EXERCISE:
How can you be more intentional and tuned into your world, so that you can find greater joy and fulfillment in life’s special moments?
Walk Your Talk
“You cannot talk your way out of something you behaved yourself into.”
—Stephen Covey, American self-help author
Image from nxtlvlc.com
Actions speak louder than words. They are all we really have to turn our dreams of a better future into a reality.
Consider a business leader whose behavior is inconsistent with the core values and corporate vision he claims to follow. Consider the individual who constantly brings up his interest in health and wellness, yet makes unhealthy choices and rarely engages in physical activity.
EXERCISE:
Where in your life can you bring greater alignment between your words and your actions?
To whom, beside yourself, will you make the promises? What added support will be required to ensure this new level of personal responsibility?
Choices Reflect Your Hopes
“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”
-Nelson Mandela
image from www.cbc.ca
There are two primary schools of thought regarding what spurs people into action. The first is what I call the “avoiding pain” strategy, in which people examine the bad things that may occur if they don’t take action. Some sales methods take advantage of this approach by turning up the level of pain in order to compel people to buy a product or service.
The alternative strategy, suggested in Nelson Mandela’s statement, could be called the “pleasure strategy.” Here, a compelling and hopeful objective mobilizes us to choose certain actions and behaviors that will help us realize our desirable future.
EXERCISE:
What will you do to make the majority of your life choices—personally and professionally—from a more hopeful perspective?
A Better Way
“There has got to be a better way.”
—Steve Jobs, late CEO of Apple, Inc.
Image from openculture.com
My wife and I recently saw the new Steve Jobs movie. Regardless of your views about him as a person, he sure did exemplify today’s quote, and the Apple mantra of “Think Different.”
Perhaps much of the controversy about his life and leadership style was about how he always pushed the limits of what was possible, which sometimes involved pushing many of those around him out of their comfort zones.
Throughout my coaching career, I have encouraged my clients each and every day to be prepared to break their current patterns if they want new worlds to emerge.
To do otherwise would be insane.
EXERCISE:
Where in your personal or professional world would embracing a “There has got to be a better way” philosophy actually make things better?
“Life has no remote…”
“Life has no remote. Get up and change it yourself.”
-Mark Cooper, author of Edelweiss Pirates, Operation Einstein
Image from Flickr by Keith Williamson
If you were to walk through your family room, den, entertainment area, basement, or home theater, collecting all your remote control devices, how many would you have?
In many ways, we have developed into a remote control society, frequently looking for the simplest and least effort necessary to change things for the better. It’s so easy to delete, fast forward, or hop over commercials to get to the sporting event, sitcom, or drama that interests us.
Our lives, however, usually play one show, entitled “Our Lives,” and we cannot click a button to change it easily.
EXERCISE:
Where in your personal or professional life is it time to get out of your chair and make the necessary changes you desire?
“Sometimes, you just have to…”
“Sometimes, you just have to bow your head, say a prayer, and weather the storm.”
—Author Unknown
Image from Flickr by Melinda Swinford
In recent weeks, I’ve met a number of people experiencing significant challenges in their professional and personal worlds. They were knocked down and kept down by death, illness, accidents, and other major life events. For some, many of these things were happening at the same time.
Those who weather the storms the best all mentioned that it was their faith, family, and friends that made these disturbing and often tragic life events bearable.
EXERCISE:
Where can you seek for yourself—or offer to others—a level of support to more successfully weather the storms of life?
“You can’t start the next…”
“You can’t start the next chapter if you keep re-reading the last one.”
—Author Unknown
Imagine a book based on your life, with a Table of Contents that looks like this:
How likely would you be to keep reading the same chapter over and over again?
Although the answer seems obvious, many people live their lives this way, where “today” looks a great deal like many of their yesterdays.
EXERCISE:
If today’s scenario is even a bit familiar, consider telling a new life story by using Stephen Covey’s “Begin with the End in Mind” habit. Work your way backwards to write about the page-turning journey that got you there. I hope it is a best seller!
“People are like tea bags…”
“People are like tea bags. You find out how strong they are when you put them in hot water.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady of the United States of America
Photo from Flickr by Eric Jusino
Other than water, tea is the most popular drink in the world—so popular that its consumption is equal to that of coffee, soft drinks, and alcohol, combined!
Most of us have experienced pouring a cup of hot water over a bag or two, and watching it release its flavor within a few minutes. If you are a bit impatient, you may have even tried dunking the tea bag up and down to release its flavor even faster.
EXERCISE:
Consider the challenges, obstacles, and barriers you are facing today in either your personal or professional life. See them as hot water that brings out your greatest strengths, and your capacity for personal excellence.
How will you share your cup of life tea with others? How might you offer a little “hot water” to others, to help them discover their own inner strength?