But is that really true? Do these seemingly insignificant choices have less of an impact on our lives?
If you look at where you are right now – where you live, what you do, who you are with, your weight, your health, your finances, your happiness – we are exactly where we are today because of the many, many choices that we have made.
We don’t become unfit, overweight, unhappy, broke etc overnight, it is because of the (often) unconscious choices we make again and again. If we are unhappy with any part of our lives, we only have to look back and take note of all those unconscious choices that we made that got us to where we are today.
Equally, when we think about our future, we know that it will be built on the choices we are making right NOW, today.
If that’s the case, don’t you think we could spend more time really thinking about our choices? Considering the consequences, rather than repeating patterns of behaviour from our past?
If we really think about the relationship between our choices, our behaviours and hence the results we get, it would be easier to make a choice that fits in with our ultimate desire.
It’s simple really: if you don’t like the life you are living, then you need to make better choices. One simple and easy way to help you make better choices and keep you on track is to ask the right question.
So what’s this amazing question than can actually change your life?
Does it make my boat go faster?
This I got from the 2012 Olympics after the men’s rowing……and we all know how well they did :-). When they looked at their training, their nutrition, everything they were asked to do, this is the question they asked themselves; if the answer was YES it would make their boat go faster, then that is what they would choose.
So Simple and so Effective.
At least that’s one version! I have this on my white board in my office: whenever a business decision comes up, I glance at this question and ask myself “does this make my boat go faster” i.e by making this choice will it propel me towards the future I desire or lead me further away from it?
Basically, you are asking:
Does this choice help me achieve what I want?
If we take weight loss as an example, we haven’t gained weight overnight, we haven’t gained weight because we ate one biscuit, but we have gained weight because every time we ate something which we know is bad for us, we have justified it to ourselves. We tell ourselves, well it’s only one biscuit, a few glasses of wine, it’s dark chocolate, it won’t do any harm, I’ll be good tomorrow etc etc.
Every time we’ve eaten because we have allowed our emotions such as stress, overwhelm, needing to feel happier or simply habit (as we are operating from our unconscious mind), we have made a choice that has consequences. The consequences of our choices are that they take us away from what we desire (to be slim) and they don’t just keep us stuck, they actually take us further away from our end desire as we gain even more weight.
If we stop before we eat that biscuit and ask ourselves if by choosing this, will it make my boat go faster, i.e. will it lead me towards what I desire?
If we ask ourselves that question, then it makes it much harder to make the choice to eat the biscuit!
Try and see how you go 🙂
There is a little catch to this……..if your unconscious desire is to feel less stressed, less unhappy, stay overweight then it will do its best to encourage you towards the short term fix of the biscuit and away from the long term gain of weight loss!