The Daily Choices We Make and the Actions We Take Determine the Success We have…

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Written by Jimmie Burroughs Email this article to a friend

The gift of choice is God given but included also is responsibility; we must bear the responsibility for the choices we make. Most of the daily choices we make are easy choices. It is easy to choose the right thing but it is also easy to choose the wrong thing.

I remember the first time I had to choose to smoke a cigarette or not to smoke. In those days it had not been proven how dangerous cigarette smoking was to your health so that was not a determining issue. I was also far too young to consider those things anyway. I must have been not more than 7 or 8 years old at the time. A playmate of mine had gotten a couple of cigarettes somewhere and he also had some matches and he gave me one of each and I was just about to light up when I looked down the road and saw my dad headed our way and; I stopped and handed the match and cigarette back to my friend.

I don’t know exactly why but from that day forth I never choose to smoke cigarettes. I guess that by making the right choice the first time made the second time a bit easier. Smoking that first cigarette would not have hurt me at all; it was the consistent choice of never smoking that made the lasting impact on my life. That is the key: making the right choice to start with and then being consistent that has life changing results.

It is not just the big dramatic choices that come along that determine our success in life but the everyday simple choices that don’t seem to be that important at all. It will make no difference if I choose to exercise today or not but it is the consistent choice not to exercise that will bring ultimate harm to my health. It is not choosing to smoke a cigarette that harms my health, or drink a soda, or eat some food high in fat; no, it is the consistent choice to do those things that mounts up. Each day we make choices and take actions or fail to take actions that ultimately bring success or failure. It is just the little everyday choices and little actions but over time they mount up.

If you go the gym today for a hard workout, you will not be able to see any change in the muscle tone but if you consistently go to the gym and work out, in time you will see the difference. Success comes in such small increments that it is unnoticeable but in time it becomes obvious.

Here is the key issue: the choices that make the difference are easy to make but they are also just as easy not to make.

One of the greatest enemies of making right choices is procrastination. We often know that we should do something and have every intention of doing it but not just today so we put it off until another day and then another until we finally forget about it.

I read a story of two young men, age 24, who were friends through college. They were talking one day about starting an investment for retirement. Both agreed that they would start by investing $2,000 to start with and then invest $2,000 each year. The first fellow carried it out the very next day and the second one decided to wait a year then start.

The year passed by and he decided to wait still another year; after six years had passed he still hadn’t started. One day he was talking to his friend and asked him how his retirement investment was going and his friend replied that he had finished it. What! said the other. How is that? His friend replied that he had invested enough and would have plenty as it compounded each year until retirement. The other decided to go and get his started also; so for 6 years he invested. Did he catch up with his friend? No because his friend’s investment had continued to grow.

He invested another 6 years. Had he caught up with his friend since he had now invested twice as long? The answer is still no. He invested another 6 years which now made 18 years but he still had not caught up with his friend.

He went for another 6 years to make 24 years but still lagged behind his friend who only invest for 6 years. After another 6 years he had now invested $2,000 a year in the same investment as his friend with the same growth rate and yet he was still behind him.

It took another 3 years before he caught up and he was now at retirement age at 63 years old. He had invested for 33 years to have the same investment his friend had by investing for only 6 years. The difference was his friend started 6 years earlier.

A bad choice and procrastination had cost him an additional $54,000 and had taken him 27 additional years of investing $2,000 each year to arrive at the same amount of retirement as his friend who only invested for 6 years.

Yes, simple choices that can impact our lives over time are easy to make but also easy not to make. There is a good quote: “Just do the thing and the power will come” Ralph Waldo Emersion

When you know something is the right choice, just do the thing and do it consistently and you will see the results as time goes by.

“With patience and ease, in an unselfish and purposeful way, over a time period undetermined, and for a good that includes others, I intend for $1,000,000 to come to me and to others who join me in holding to this objective.” Jimmie Burroughs

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Jimmie Burroughs is the author of JimmieBurroughs.com ; get more tips on personal development: www.JimmieBurroughs.com

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