Everything Counts: 52 Remarkable Ways to Inspire Excellence and Drive Results

Chapter 23. Every Choice Counts

"We can turn lemons into lemonade, weeds into gardens, and pennies into fortunes, simply by making a choice to do so."

Every choice must have a purpose: to move you closer to your goals!

Some people claim that you must "play the hand that life deals." But you build that hand largely from a deck of your own choices, and your hand improves as your choices improve. Every moment offers you a choice: to exercise this power by setting and holding a direction or to veer off course.

Every choice counts. There are no insignificant choices, no neutral actions. Even the smallest decision has a bottom-line consequence, leading you toward or away from your goals.

Choices are the meat of your daily diet. Your quality of life is a direct reflection of the quality of the decisions you've made up to this moment. Good choices move you to desirable actions. Your life immediately points "true north" when you begin making choices that lead you toward your goals.

In fact, you can decide to change it all any day—or at any moment—that you wish. You can make the decision to improve the quality of your life. You can decide to get in the best physical shape of your life. You can decide to raise your own personal standards. You can commit to doing excellent work. You can decide to say yes to your dreams.

Conversely, you can decide to do nothing at all. You can decide to make excuses rather than accept responsibility; to avoid rather than to confront a problem; to be a follower, instead ...