MyLifeTimer | I Choose To

I Choose To

Some years ago I realized that having goals and objectives, wanting to do things, making plans to do things, and so on, wasn’t leading to enough of the outcomes that I so much wanted and needed in my life.

Then one day I realized, what if I reframed all my goals and plans as things I choose to do instead of things I simply want to do?

Wow. What a difference that made! All the difference in the world!

Let me illustrate. For many years I had a long term goal of taking a year off from work. As much as I wanted to do that, I could never seem to get started on a path to get me there. Plus, being completely honest with myself, I was somewhat terrified of the whole prospect. Until one day I sat down and simply wrote down: I choose to take a year off starting on my birthday two years from now. I made a point of reading that statement pretty much every morning. Very quickly it became a choice. Not a dream, not a goal, not a hope, not an ambition, not a plan – BUT A CHOICE.

It may sound like an oversimplification, but with my mind in the right place, focused daily on that choice, the rest followed. In about 18 months I had over a year of income saved (the strength and conviction of my choice gave me the discipline to make the right fiancial decisions and sacrifices) and I submitted my resignation from my then C.T.O. position about three months before my birthday.

Beyond that, I now have an “I Choose…” list I read every day. It’s a list that I continue to refine, edit, update, and change as new things come to mind that I want to do, or improve in myself, or gain a new understanding from things I read or hear. This list has become an important part of my daily reading, journaling, and life planning times— TIP: the tools I use for this planning time are Evernote , Penultimate , Kindle Unlimited , and Asana .

It’s a bit personal, but here is my daily list of things I choose to do; I keep it under a notebook page titled Mind Training that I read almost every day:

I CHOOSE…

to work only in my own circles of influence.
to make small commitments that I can keep.
to be part of a solution, not part of a problem.
to begin with the end in mind.
to focus 80% of my time and energy on ESSENTIAL things that are not-urgent but important.
to like the results I am getting or try something else!
to not let things happen to me and make things happen for me.
to stop focusing on problems and look for the opportunity inside the problems.
to be focused on discovering the truth rather than determining blame. (Ask the 5 “Whys?”)
to not chase “rabbits/squirrels/shiny objects”.
to remember if the answer is not a “Hell Yes!” the answer is “NO!”
to remember that “No.” is a complete sentence; a “because”, “but”, or “maybe” not required.
to remember I don’t need to be good at everything, just great at some things.
to remember faliure is a “LIE” – Limited, Isolated, and External.
to be a founder, not a follower; an entrepreneur, not an employee.
to make life an interesting story, not a perfect story.
to acknowledge that I’m not for everyone, and that’s OK.
to acknowledge that I’m not responsible for how others feel or react or think about me.
to ask myself “What would I do in this situation to act in my complete self interest?”
to stop saying “sorry” and apologizing for ordinary things I do or say.
to know I will never fully succeed until I am willing to go “all in” on something.
to think in terms of “healthspan” versus lifespan.
to recognize and overcome “resistance” as my biggest enemy in life.
to recognize introversion as my “super power”, not my weakness.
to not ignore but recognize, analyze, and use “FUD” – Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.
to try and “preach what I practice” more than try to “practice what I preach.”
to identify the “one thing” I can focus on daily that has the most impact on making life simpler and leading to successful outcomes.
to know that humans on average live 26,353 days and I expect to live more than 36,524 (100 years).
to know that today I have lived 0000 days and counting… (Install the MyLifeTimer App to track this number if you like.)
to achieve financial independence on MM/DD/YYYY
to achieve financial independence by choosing to… (list of sub-choices)

Just an idea.

SSL Encrypted