Learn How To Make Better Choices To Be More Successful

Posted on April 04, 2013 by Anne Bachrach, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

“If you don’t like where you are, change it! You’re not a tree.” – Jim Rohn

You may have heard it said that it is the little things in life that are worth living for. Similarly, the little things in life are what change our lives for the better or worse. The choices we make in life define who we are and what we will eventually become. Certainly, making some rash decisions when we are young can have very ill consequences when we grow older. It is important that people maintain their health with a view to tomorrow, while balancing their desires for the present day. However, this advice also applies to a person’s heart and mind. When we take chances because of our passions or we take action because of our mind’s ambition, we have to live with the result of our actions—good and bad.

Knowing this should impress upon us the importance of making somewhat informed decisions. Strong emotion should always be taken into account when making choices, but it cannot totally overpower logic and reason. There is something to be said about going with your “gut.” Sometimes we just don’t know enough to make a totally informed decision so going with your “gut” might play a role in your choice. If going with your “gut” never seems to get you the results you want, you may have to reconsider this strategy. Having a fine balance of both qualities is the best way to make careful decisions in life that you can live with now and tomorrow. That said no one is expected to make perfect decisions. They say hindsight is always 20/20 because sometimes we see things in retrospect that we were never capable of seeing years ago. Perhaps we have grown in our perspectives and our understandings of other people. More importantly, we have come to know ourselves.

In order to be happy in life people must learn to act wisely and to forgive the past. You should educate yourself to make prosperous decisions and to minimize unnecessary grief. Furthermore, learn to put the past behind you, forgiving yourself for mistakes, indiscretions and even for the conduct of others. This sounds simple enough but can be a real challenge for some people who have high standards or who have been hurt by others. Some people never let go of the past and choose to be bitter for the rest of their life. They may wonder “Why me?” or have a self-pitying attitude that says they could have been happy or successful “if…”

The truth of the matter is that a happy life is all about choices and progress. We make choices to the best of our abilities and then progress forward. The most successful people in life believe that they have a purpose and that they will achieve that purpose, goal by goal. Some of these people have severe limitations, but they are determined to live life to its fullest and to serve other human beings to the best of their abilities. Some very famous people have had to cope with physical afflictions. Ludwig Van Beethoven and Lou Ferrigno had to overcome deafness to achieve their dreams. Noted genius Stephen Hawkings is paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; however, he is still regarded as one of the smartest minds in human history for his contributions to the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, not to mention a best-selling author for his work on A Brief History of Time. Never feel that you are limited by your imperfections!

In learning more about self-improvement, we learn that we can’t change others, nor can we single-handedly change the world. People do have the power to change their own lives and this is the single most important message in self-improvement. You do not have to settle for what you think is life’s “role” for you. You are not doomed to live a life you are unhappy living. You are not enslaved to other people. Any and all of these self-limiting beliefs are changeable. You make your own choices. You choose to live where and how you live. If you don’t like any part of your life, choose to change it – start today.

You have the power to look for another job and make a positive change in your career. You have the power to seek out higher education to follow a different career path. You have the capacity to define success and to reach that pinnacle of success through working smart and having perseverance. The choices you make may help or hinder your mission in life, depending on how much thought goes into the decision making process. However, even if you make a mistake in judgment it’s not the end of your mission. It simply means that you have to make adjustments in your life plan to get you back on track. Giving up should never be an option. Your choices directly affect your life and possibly others, depending on your situation and choices. You owe it yourself and to others to make the most of what you have been given.

These are the choices you will have to make. You almost always have a choice.

Have you ever heard someone say that they will eat the desert or the fried food or something they know if not healthy because they are on vacation? Have you ever said this to yourself? I call this the “I’m on vacation mentality.” We all have a choice and you can choose to eat well if you make a conscious effort to do so. When you are away at a business function, you can choose to eat well. You don’t have to get sucked into eating poorly just because others do or they don’t have the healthy food out for you to eat. Take food that is healthier with you and eat that. If you have ever participated in this mentality, you can choose to make this a no longer acceptable behavior.

This same mentality or behavior might apply to exercise. Some people use the excuse that they don’t have time to exercise when they are at a business function. Again this comes down to making a choice to exercise or not. You can get up earlier, exercise through lunch, after the meeting (before dinner), etc. Maybe your exercise isn’t as long as you would typically like it to be or what you are used to, and that is okay. Choosing to exercise a portion of what you would like is better than nothing at all. The benefit of exercise is huge and affects many areas, even if you do it for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, or 30 minutes. Is this something that might be a no longer acceptable for you?

Jack Welch, arguably the greatest CEO of our time, held the philosophy, “Tell me the truth, and tell me early.” If something happened and you knew and didn’t tell him about it, you were fired. But if you came to him early and told him, “You know what? This whole project is screwed up, and I don’t know what to do about it,” you’d go a long way with Jack Welch.

Truthfulness and believability always have appeal. If your claims are truthful (not inflated) and if you trust your clients and sincerely believe they deserve the truth, they will trust you in return. As Emerson said, “Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.” The truth has power. If you tell the truth, you begin to play in a new league; you walk away from the games of salesmanship and into the realm of reality as a true professional that people seek and want to work with. Sometimes it is good to have a thought you don’t express, as my husband Bill says. On the other hand, it is sometimes good to have thoughts you do express.

“Don’t say, “If I could, I would.” Say instead, “If I can, I will.”” – Jim Rohn