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Thursday 28th Nov 2019

Why Success Is usually A Series Of Good Choices

All the choices you make have a consequence. Even choosing to do nothing has an impact. The reality is that the quality of your life is in direct proportion to the quality of the choices you make every day. And it’s not just the big life decisions that genuinely shape your destiny. It’s the small incremental choices that make the difference. The compound effect of those small choices every day will have an exponential impact on the quality of your life.

All the choices you make have a consequence. Even choosing to do nothing has an impact. The reality is that the quality of your life is in direct proportion to the quality of the choices you make every day. And it’s not just the big life decisions that genuinely shape your destiny. It’s the small incremental choices that make the difference. The compound effect of those small choices every day will have an exponential impact on the quality of your life.

Success is the result of a continuous series of choices made every day.

choices in life

To illustrate the power of your choices, let me share this story with you;

“Jerry is the manager of a restaurant. He is always in a good mood. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would always reply “If I were any better, I would be twins!”

Many of the waiters at his restaurant quit their jobs when he changed jobs so that they could follow him around from restaurant to restaurant.

Why?

Because Jerry was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was always there, telling them how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style made his manager curious, so one day he went up to Jerry and asked him: “I don’t get it! No one can be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?”

Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, I have two choices today. I can choose to be in a good mood or I can choose to be in a bad mood. I always choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim, or I can choose to learn from it. I always choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I always choose the positive side of life.”

“But it’s not always that easy”, his manager protested.

“Yes it is”, Jerry said. You choose…

…how you react to situations.

…how people will affect your mood.

…the course of action you want to take.

…the difference you want to make.

Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk and all the noise, every situation is a choice. 

Why success is a series of good choices

One day Jerry accidentally left the back door of the restaurant open, and after closing three armed men entered the restaurant. Jerry was forced to open the safe, and in the commotion, the robbers panicked and shot him.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullet still in his body. About six months after the accident, Jerry’s restaurant manager went to visit him. When he asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Want to see my scars?” The manager laughed but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place.

“The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door. Then, after they shot me, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren’t you scared?” the manager asked.

“The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the Emergency room, and I saw the expression on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got petrified. In their eyes, I read ‘He’s a dead man!’ I knew I needed to take action.”

“What did you do?”

“Well, there was a nurse shouting questions at me – she asked if I was allergic to anything, the doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Bullets!!’

Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Please operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.”

The one thing that is yours – that no one can control or take from you is your attitude and the choices you make

Success is not an accident (check out this blog for my five secrets to success: Success is not an accident.) Nor is it the result of just one monumental decision. How you show up at your choice points is critical to your success.

You make your choices, and then your choices make you.

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