Choosing the Best
Life can be confusing at times and it is hard to know what to do. Here are a few ideas on how to make the right choices and reach the goals that matter the most.
What you do will come back to you. Most of our lives are spent dealing with the results of a few important decisions we make. So, when we have a decision to make, it is vital to try to choose the best.
Your life is the product of your moment-to-moment choice. You have incredible power to change your life by changing those choices.
What happens around us is largely outside of our control, but the way we choose to react to it is within our power to decide. “Life is a voyage in which we choose neither vessel nor weather, but much can be done in the management of the sails & the guidance of the helm.” The whole game of life is constant choices.
So how do we make wise decisions and choose the best? -- You have to think about what's going to bear the best fruit in the long run.
This leads us to a central point in “choosing the best”: We must define what success means to us personally. One side of success relates to the “inner” feelings of fulfillment, satisfaction, and happiness that we derive from our families, relationships, and having meaningful work. The other “outer” perspective ties to our desires for achievement, social recognition, and respect. Obviously, the “inner” perspectives are the ones which define our life’s goals and priorities.
Often, due to urgent matters or the many distractions we face in modern living, we don’t make decisions on our life’s priorities at all. Many of us today do not know our life’s priorities because we are so busy, or sidetracked with inconsequential time-wasters, that we never stop to think about what’s most important to us.
The great usurper- The Urgent
Stephen Covey in his highly successful book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, states that many times we cannot do the important and good things in life we would like to do, because of the many urgent things that take place day to day.“Urgent” means it requires immediate attention. It’s visible, right in front of us, and insists on action.
Importance, on the other hand, has to do with results. If something is important, it contributes to your life’s goals, your values, what you want to do with your life.
We react to urgent matters. Important matters that are not urgent require more initiative and more proactivity. If we don't have a clear idea of what is important to get the results we desire in our lives, we are easily diverted into responding to the urgent, which is so often temporary, and doesn’t always help us reach our main goals.
There are things that are not urgent, but are very important, things like building relationships, establishing our life’s goals, long-range planning, exercising -- all those things we know we need to do, but seldom get around to doing, because they aren't urgent.
And because they aren't urgent, we don't do them. We have to decide what our highest priorities are and have the courage to say "no" to other things, by having a bigger "yes" burning inside.
Keep in mind that you are always saying "no" to something. If it isn't to the visible, urgent things in your life, it is probably to the more fundamental, highly important things. Even when the urgent is good, the good can keep you from your best, keep you from your unique contributions, if you let it. Many people feel that their main fault is a lack of discipline. But perhaps the basic problem is that their priorities have not become established, and deeply planted in their hearts, minds and daily behavior.
To quote J.K. Rowling, “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” We have a limited time on this earth. So let’s do our part to make the world a better place by choosing the best!
