Put Your Life on a 'want-to, Choose-to, Like-it, Love-it Basis!

Are you going through life feeling stressed and pressured for time? Are you really happy with the choices you have been making with respect to how you spend your time, where you spend your time and with whom?

There really are only 2 "have-to's" in life: You have to die and you have to take up space while you're on this earth. Everything else is a 'want-to, choose-to' option. Everything is a choice; however, you must be prepared to accept the consequences of your choices. I give full credit to the fact I learned this very valuable 'life lesson' from my mentor, Lou Tice of The Pacific Institute in Seattle. I worked with Lou, directly and indirectly, for 15 years and this was one of the most life changing lessons for me.

Do you ever find yourself saying:

* I have to go to work.
* I have to pay my bills.
* I have to make dinner.
* I have to do the laundry.
The truth is - No, you don't! Don't go to work - stay home! Well, you say, then I won't have the money to pay my bills. That's true. So, then, shut up and go to work! (That's how I talk to myself - I'm not talking to you.) I have to pay my bills. No, you don't. Don't pay your bills. Well, then, how will I pay my taxes? I don't know. How will you? The bottom line is that we make the choices in our lives because we want to live the standard of life to which we have become accustomed.

Professionally, I feel pressure often when I am working on deadlines. However, now that I have mastered this critical thinking skill, that pressure is short-lived. I always find a way to turn it around to a 'want-to, choose-to' option. This is an example of where, and how, you can change your life by changing the way you think.

When I was on the second world tour, but this time as a tour leader, I felt the 'pressure' of getting on a camel in Dubai. We were out in the desert at an Arabian BBQ (I think that's what it was called), and the tour company had already pre-paid for everyone to have this camel 'adventure'. Well, I had that experience the previous year and, while at that time I really did want to experience it 'all', on this second trip, it was beginning to feel like a HAVE-TO of the greatest magnitude. Riding a camel is not exactly my idea of a good time, having experienced it once. But, because the camel ride had been paid for and I really did want to set a good example for the people with us on the tour, I shifted my thinking, came up with many good reasons as to why I would WANT TO get back on that animal, .....I did it! And I liked it. It's all in the way we think!

I am encouraging you, and even challenging you, to change your life so that you live each moment by intent. You invent your own future. To move forward with positive anticipation, positive anxiety, positive anticipation of change - you need to change something. You need to make some different choices. Otherwise, if you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you're getting. To expect otherwise is the definition of insanity.

You need to create a new vision for the way you want to live your life! It's the only life you have. For many of us, we look forward and we scare ourselves to death. We sometimes wonder if we're biting off more than we can chew (and, yes, sometimes that is the case because we're always saying YES when, in reality, we really want to say NO! - and that's the content of a future issue, so stay tuned!). Believe me, I know how that feels. It's ok to be intimidated - it's not ok to stay intimidated. Say YES to your future and put it on a want-to, choose-to, like-it, love-it basis and feel your energy soar! Release that energy and start living the life you deserve! Your thinking determines your actions. The behavior you choose creates the results you get.

What about you? Where are you feeling the pressure of 'have-to's in your life?