“Man is born to live and not to prepare to live.” Boris Pasternak
Think back ten years. Where were you, what were you doing, what dreams did you have? Ten years can go past quickly. Did you accomplish even a part of the things you dreamt of doing?
Ten years from today will certainly arrive, and probably a lot faster than we can imagine right now. So since it’s going to pass anyway, what are you going to do with it. Where are you going to be ten years from now? How are you going to live today in order to create the tomorrow you envision?
“The most powerful way to shape our lives is to get ourselves to take action. The difference in the results that people produce comes down to what they’ve done differently from others in the same situations. Different actions produce different results.
In essence, if we want to control our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions It’s not what we do once in awhile that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.”
So what are we doing consistently. If you want to be fit, are you exercising and eating well everyday? If you want to have financial freedom, are you working everyday on a plan to accomplish that? Are you treating your family with love and respect everyday to develop those relationships of trust?
“In your moments of decision your destiny is shaped.”
Three decisions that you make every moment of your life that control your destiny. They are:
1. Your decisions about what to focus on.
2. Your decisions about what things mean to you.
3. Your decisions about what to do to create the results you desire.
“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.”
-Henry David Thoreau
Many of us spend our life in what Robbins calls “The Niagara Syndrome.” We float along in the river of life, “going with the flow,” caught up in all the events of life, when one day the hear raging water in the distance, and realize that they’re about to go off Niagara Falls. This might be an emotional fall, a financial fall or maybe a physical fall.
“It’s likely that whatever challenges you have in your life currently could have been avoided by some better decisions upstream.”
Our brains are constructed with an internal system for making decisions. The frightening part is that most of us have not consciously created that system, it was done unconsciously through life events- childhood, parents, teachers, experiences, etc.
So we travel through life making decisions based on our internal decision making system, not knowing if that system is founded on accurate principles or not.
Robbins wants to guide us through this book to discover our own master system of decisions making- consciously constructed to bring us what we want in life.
“We don’t have to follow the programming of our past to control our present and future.”
It is your decisions, not your conditions that determine your destiny. Reading inspiring books, attending seminars, none of it works, unless you decide to do something about it.
Robbins gives 6 steps for Harnessing the Power of Decisions:
1. Remember the true power of making decisions. It’s a tool to change your life.
2. Realize that the hardest step in achieving anything is making a true commitment- a true decision. Just decide! Make your decisions intelligently, but make them quickly.
3. Make decisions often. Muscles get stronger with use, so do decision-making abilities.
4. Learn from your decisions. You’re going to make the wrong decisions sometimes. That’s ok! Just learn from them.
5. Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach. Know what you want, but be flexible with how it will be accomplished.
6. Enjoy making decisions. At any moment a decision can change the course of your life forever. Live with the attitude that the next decision you make will make your life even better.
Moment of Inspiration:
We have the power to choose our life. We’re not a victim of circumstance. We can decide at any moment to change whatever it is we don’t like.
Chapter 3- The Force that Shapes Your Life
