Ownership And Our Choices

                                                                                 Ownership and Our Choices

  By Liz Uram

 

Sometimes we get caught up in the drama of life and forget that we have choices.  We have the choice to act or react and the choices we make shape our lives. 

 

  I was talking with my 20-year old daughter recently and trying to come up with my best motherly advice.  Nothing terrible was going on, just life stuff that we all deal with.  Since she was open to listening I took full advantage of the opportunity to pull out my best stuff about how to have the life you want.  Here’s what I came up with:

 

Instead of focusing on what’s not going right and what you don’t have, focus on what you want.  Knowing what you want is the ultimate key to having the life you want.  A good life doesn’t just fall into your lap.

 

  You have to be aware of it.  In fact, the more time you spend on focusing on what you don’t have the less chance you have of accepting the good that is coming your way.  I’m a believer that opportunity is all around us and that good things are coming our way all the time. 

 

The problem is, that if we are so focused on the way things should be or having what we can’t have, we miss those opportunities and they land on someone else.  Then we get caught up in the fruitless cycle of focusing on what other people have. 

 

Get rid of the clutter.  Accept what isn’t working or serving you well.  A better way is to not pay attention to what other people have and just focus on what we want and what we are going to do to get it.

 

 

Instead of saying I can’t, say I can.  It’s true that we can’t change what other people do or what happened in the past but we can do things differently going forward.  So, if you don’t like the way something is you can ask yourself what you can do differently.  And no, this doesn’t mean trying to change other people.  It means working on ourselves to become the person we want to become. 

 

 Like attracts like so if you want something a certain way you have to start to become a certain way.  A job or your business, is a perfect example of this.  If you want a promotion or to have a reputation as an expert then start acting the way someone at that level would act.  I’m not saying you should be a fake and be something you’re not, I’m saying to figure out what is it you want and develop yourself into that.

 

 

Figure out what you want.  The easiest way is to sit down and write out everything you want in 7 areas of your life – financial, career, relationships, recreation, health and wellness, personal development, and community service.  My book How to Organize & Manage Your Time – A One Year Planning and Action Guide is designed especially to help you do this.   

 

 

My encouragement for you is that you will focus on figuring out what you want, what you can change, and taking small daily actions to make it happen.  Remember, you can achieve whatever you believe as long as you are willing to work for it.

 

 

About the author:  Liz Uram is a certified professional coach, has a B.A. in Organizational Leadership, is the author of  How to Organize & Manage Your Time – A One Year Planning and Action Guide, and is an award-winning speaker.  She specializes in helping entrepreneurs and solo professionals attract more qualified leads, get more clients, and make more money!  Visit www.coachandmentor.net to learn more.