Life Is About Making Choices And Decisions

Life is like a road. There are long and short roads; smooth and rocky roads; crooked and straight paths. In our life many roads would come our way as we journey through life. There are roads that lead to a life of single blessedness, marriage, and religious vocation. There are also roads that lead to fame and fortune on one hand, or isolation and poverty on the other. There are roads to happiness as there are roads to sadness, roads towards victory and jubilation, and roads leading to defeat and disappointment.

Just like any road, there are corners, detours, and crossroads in life. Perhaps the most perplexing road that you would encounter is a crossroad. With four roads to choose from and with limited knowledge on where they would go, which road will you take? What is the guarantee that we would choose the right one along the way? Would you take any road, or just stay where you are: in front of a crossroad?

There are no guarantees.

You do not really know where a road will lead you until you take it. There are no guarantees. This is one of the most important things you need to realize about life. Nobody said that choosing to do the right thing all the time would always lead you to happiness. Loving someone with all your heart does not guarantee that it would be returned. Gaining fame and fortune does not guarantee happiness. Accepting a good word from an influential superior to cut your trip short up the career ladder is not always bad, especially if you are highly qualified and competent. There are too many possible outcomes, which your really cannot control. The only thing you have power over is the decisions that you will make, and how you would act and react to different situations.

Wrong decisions are always at hindsight.

Had you known that you were making a wrong decision, would you have gone along with it? Perhaps not, why would you choose a certain path when you know it would get you lost? Why make a certain decision if you knew from the very beginning that it is not the right one. It is only after you have made a decision and reflected on it that you realize its soundness. If the consequences or outcomes are good for you, then you have decided correctly. Otherwise, your decision was wrong.

Take the risk and decide.

Since life offers no guarantee and you would never know that your decision would be wrong until you have made it, then you might as well take the risk and decide. It is definitely better than keeping yourself in limbo. Although it is true that one wrong turn could get you lost, it could also be that such a turn could be an opportunity for an adventure, moreover open more roads. It is all a matter of perspective. You have the choice between being a lost traveller or an accidental tourist of life. But take caution that you do not make decisions haphazardly. Taking risks is not about being careless and stupid. Here are some pointers that could help you choose the best option in the face of life’s crossroads:
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Get as many information as you can about your situation.

You cannot find the confidence to decide when you know so little about what you are faced with. Just like any news reporter, ask the 5 W’s: what, who, when, where, and why. What is the situation? Who are the people involved? When did this happen? Where is this leading? Why are you in this situation? These are just some of the possible questions to ask to know more about your situation. This is important. Oftentimes, the reason for indecision is the lack of information about a situation.

Identify and create options.

What options do the situation give you? Sometimes the options are few, but sometimes they are numerous. But what do you do when you think that the situation offers no options? This is the time that you create your own. Make your creative mind work. From the most simplistic to the most complicated, entertain all ideas. Do not shoot anything down when an idea comes to your head. Sometimes the most outrageous idea could prove to be the right one in the end. You can ask a friend to help you identify options and even make more options if you encounter some difficulty, but make sure that you make the decision yourself in the end.

Weigh the pros and cons of every option.

Assess each option by looking at the advantages and disadvantages it offers you. In this way, you get more insights about the consequences of such an option.

Trust yourself and make that decision.

Now that you have assessed your options, it is now time to trust yourself. Remember that there are no guarantees and wrong decisions are always at hindsight. So choose… decide… believe that you are choosing the best option at this point in time.

Now that you have made a decision, be ready to face its consequences: good and bad. It may take you to a place of promise or to a land of problems. But the important thing is that you have chosen to live your life instead of remaining as a bystander or a passive audience to your own life. Whether it is the right decision or not, only time can tell. But do not regret it whatever the outcome. Instead, learn from it and remember that you always have the chance to make better decisions in the future.

Self Improvement And Success Often Go Hand In Hand

How do you handle the ups and downs that life throws at you? We all experience bad times in our life. To continue improve ourselves and move ahead, we should not dwell on the problems or mistakes we made. We should instead learn from our mistakes and use them as an invaluable experience to move on with our life.

One of my favorite self-improvement movies is “Door to Door”. Based on a true story, this movie is about a door-to-door salesman (Bill Porter) who is afflicted with cerebral palsy. Despite his medical condition and had been told by many people that he was not employable, he didn’t allow that to stop him from pursuing a career and became one of the best door-to-door salesman. Despite the pain of his medical condition, he would walk eight to ten miles a day to meet his customers. His story touched the heart of many of his potential customers.

I highly recommend anyone to watch this movie, it’s a very inspiring story. It shows that anyone can achieve success if they can just focus on what they can do, have a never-say-die attitude and refuse to give up despite facing many challenges.

I believe self improvement and success always go hand in hand. Here are some tips to help you in your self-improvement process.

1. Stop thinking or viewing yourself as a failure. This may sound cliche but it’s very important as everything starts in your mind. How do you think other people would view you if you always feel that you’re a failure?

2. Learn to accept yourself. Don’t compare yourself (your look, figure, etc.) to others. Self acceptance is not just about having nice figure, slender legs, or great abs. Concentrate on inner beauty.

3. Don’t succumb to failure. Learn from Thomas Edison, although he failed more than 1,000 times at making the light bulb, he didn’t feel stupid, doomed or succumb to his failures. Instead he said that he had successfully discovered more than 1,000 ways to make a light bulb.

4. Take things one at a time. Slef improvement and success is a process, don’t focus on the prize before you pay the price. Success always comes with a price tag. So, make sure you pay the price first before expecting the prize.

5. Set meaningful and achievable goals. These are the fuel that propel you forward, it motivates and aspires you to get up every morning and achieve the best. People who don’t have meaningful goals in life will be wandering around and wasting time everyday.

When you’re willing to accept change and go through the process of self improvement, you are a step closer to suuccess. You should always remember that there is no such thing as over night success. Treat it as a learning process and be willing to learn and improve. Like this quote says “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

We are all here to learn our lessons. Our parents, school teachers, friends, colleagues, neighbors could all be our teachers. When we open our doors for self improvement, we increase our chances to head for the path of success.