Your Daily Choices: Thoughtless or Purposeful?

You must weed your mind as you would weed your garden. ~Terri Guillemets

Seeds of Greatness, written by Denis Waitley, has inspired many to examine their personal and professional lives and ask:  What am I doing today that will determine my life tomorrow?  We make hundreds of thousands of choices every single day, but the question is whether they are thoughtless or purposeful.  

We are faced with life altering decisions on a daily basis, but most of us don’t realize it.  We believe our purpose is to put out fires and to work tirelessly to prevent new fires from erupting.  But if we take the time to evaluate the “seeds” we are sowing in the various aspects of our lives, then we open the door enough to peek at the future and what will “grow” from those seeds.  

To give you a glimpse into Waitley’s Seeds of Greatness, read on to see how his book is divided.

1. The Seed of Self-Esteem:  From Self-Love to Self-Worth
2. The Seed of Creativity:  Releasing Your Creative Energy
3. The Seed of Responsibility:  We Become What We Do
4. The Seed of Wisdom:  What it Means to Live Without Wax
5. The Seed of Purpose:  The Gold Mine in Your Goals
6. The Seed of Communication:  Reach Out and Touch Someone
7. The Seed of Faith:  The Power of Positive Believing
8. The Seed of Adaptability:  Turning Problems Into Opportunities
9. The Seed of Perseverance:  The Will to Win is Everything

There are areas in both personal and professional life that we are excellent at.  Maybe you have fostered your creativity in a way that you have found fulfilling.  Others may be excellent communicators, and have seen the positive results from practicing active listening and body language skills.  

But every person, no matter their circumstance of life, has areas of life which they are unwilling to look at.  Why?  If there are aspects of our personality or daily habits that are destructive to ourselves, others, our future, our business, then why wouldn't we be willing to look at them squarely and work on them?  

Do You Have What It Takes To Change?
We all have hang-ups to changing, and yet, the cycle continues: mismanaging finances, yelling when we don't get our way, trying to control others, worrying about the what-ifs instead of appreciating today.  Tony Schwartz, President and CEO of The Energy Project and author of "Be Excellent At Anything", wrote a blog post some time back on Six Keys To Changing Almost Anything.  He writes, 

In order to make change that lasts, we must rely less on our prefrontal cortex, and more on co-opting the primitive parts of our brain in which habits are formed.  Put simply, the more behaviors are ritualized and routinized — in the form of a deliberate practice — the less energy they require to launch, and the more they recur automatically.

His six keys to change include:

1. Be Highly Precise and Specific
2. Take on One New Challenge at a Time
3. Not Too Much, Not Too Little
4. What We Resist Persists
5. Competing Commitments
6. Keep the Faith 

What specific steps have you taken to incorporate change into your life?  We'd love to hear what has worked in your journey to improve your personal and/or business life.

You will also want to read the post on How To Stop Worrying and Start Living.