Your choices determine your life.
Your choices, your life.
Don’t just go with the flow. It’s time to start being more mindful of the choices we are making.
What manifests in our life is a direct correlation to our actions and the choices we make. If we want to live the best life and live to our fullest potential, we need to think about the kind of choices we are making for ourselves.
Going with the flow or just living from a reactive or passive standpoint does not often lead to great outcomes. If we want greatness or beauty in our life, we need to firstly lift our standards and place ourselves at the highest level.
For change to take place in our life we must first decide to break those chains of mediocrity that hold us back and keep us in a place of just good enough.
As time went on for me in sobriety and my confidence grew, I started to aspire for more out of life and myself. I could see how amazing life could actually be and making the right choices from the highest possible standards I had set for myself was my new norm.
Your life is worth making great choices for. Why not aim for the absolute greatest out of life. Why not squeeze every morsel of beauty out of this life and live with purpose and meaning? You absolutely can, It all starts with making better choices for ourselves.
I know of people that have lived through incredible traumas or injustices, victims of abuse and things that I can’t even comprehend yet they have come through the other side victorious. They made the decision at some point to no longer be held back by their pasts. To become leaders rather than victims. When you live your present or future based on your past you are giving all of your power to a perpetrator that hurt you, a family member that misunderstood you or a friend that let you down. That is a choice. When you decide enough is enough and you make the decision to change your life you then sit in the driver’s seat, you decide and you empower yourself with the choices you make.
Here are some great choices which can transform your life.
Fuel your body with great nutrition. Decide that nothing goes in to this body on a regular basis which does not fuel my body and my cells in a nutritious way. Good nutrition is vital to your overall wellbeing and emotional state. The foods you eat or what you drink should be full of life force. This means when possible choosing to eat good clean whole foods, less sugars and less processed foods. Wherever you can, reduce what comes in a packet or can.
Exercise. Everyone knows the importance of exercise for our mental health. So instead of sitting down to the TV or computer, make the choice to get outside and move your body. The more you move the more oxygen circulates throughout your body, the better you will look and feel. Get those endorphins pumping and look after this beautiful body you have been gifted to take you through this life.
People. Choose to spend more time with higher minded people. By that I mean people who are actively seeking to expand. People who are positive and who you might even look up to. I am not saying to ditch your old friends but if they aren’t living life to their fullest potential or you feel they are dragging you back to where you don’t want to be, just pull back for a while. Dare to even spend time on your own learning and growing and the right people will come along.
Learning. Learning is a choice and it will automatically create new neural pathways in your brain and will bust you out of any rut, build your confidence and even open you up to new social groups.
Saying no. Choosing to say no can be a very big challenge for some people. How many times do we agree to do something that we just don’t want to do or even goes against our values? Being a people pleaser has got me in to some precarious situations that I didn’t want to be in. Remember you are in the driver’s seat here. Learning to say no shows not just yourself but others your boundaries. What you will and won’t allow helps you value yourself on a much higher level.
Being kind to yourself. Choosing self-compassion is one of the greatest gifts I have found in sobriety and comes a lot more naturally when you get off the binge, guilt cycle. In an article from idea.ted.com I read that studies have shown that people who have greater levels of self-compassion are more motivated, and more successful over time. They can still identify where they’ve gone wrong, but rather than getting caught up in blame and judgement, they can learn from the experience and adapt and change course for the next time.
Think good thoughts. This is the big one. When we get caught up in our stories, the movies that we play over and over in our head about how we have been wronged or misunderstood or how crap life is, everything can become blurred. Negative thoughts can affect every area of our life and completely dismantle all of the hard work you have been doing on yourself. As Tony Robbins says, stand guard at the door of your mind. When negative or self-limiting thoughts come, simply push them away. Tell them you will come back to them later but give yourself a break. I have lots of techniques on flipping your thoughts and cultivating good quality thoughts but one of the main ones is just pushing it away and choosing a thought of gratitude instead. Be grateful for the hard times or the challenges rather than wallowing in them. You are the only one who can control your thoughts or how something affects you. So be on alert and be strong.
Get good quality sleep. Choose to get yourself to bed early. Good sleep will also help you make good choices. You eat better foods, feel more emotionally stable and are less irrational. Good sleep is the foundation of a good life and one thing I have relished in since giving up alcohol.
Your digital or information diet. If you are letting your phone or the news dish up your informational diet, you are giving all of your power away. You need to actively decide what your information is going to be and make it nutritious. As with foods we eat we want to consume whatever is going to give us positive energy and clarity of mind. Too much mindless negative noise that we have no power to influence can be detrimental to our mental health, needlessly creating a feeling of hopelessness. So turn off the news and social media notifications, switch off the TV and choose something that will nourish your soul and intellect instead.
Stop being a passive observer of your life and become an active participant by making great choices that will help you to live your best life.
Big love
Danni x