Every day you make decisions that lead you in a direction. Whether you realize it or not: your life is always moving in a direction (rarely are you stagnant, even though it may feel like it). Your decisions dictate the path you are on. The decisions you make – small or big – dictate the next step, the next paragraph, the next chapter and ultimately the story that will one day be told.
Early on, in my childhood, I made several decisions to not push myself through barriers: I subconsciously gave myself permission to listen to fear. At six years old in my gymnastics class, I chose to back down from the challenge of jumping from the high bar to the low bar in gymnastics class. At ten years old at a community pool, I chose to not jump off the high-high diving board (after 5-minutes of standing on the edge of the diving board and staring down at the water) and had to take the walk of shame and descend the ladder. In both situations, at the moment of action, I told myself “I can’t.” These were not the only moments of fear I succumbed to; there were others. But, these two stayed with me and left a mark that eventually turned into a pattern. As I got older, I still enabled the voice of my inner child to make decisions. The words I was choosing and the decisions I was making were taking me to an end-game that was safe, secure and predictable.
Eight years ago I began to choose differently…
Eight years ago I began to question my decision to lead a ‘corporate’ life. A life that was unintentionally filled with uninspired obligation. At that time, I was just ending a 5-year period of time filled with: my 2007 engagement, 2008 wedding, two miscarriages in 2008 and 2009, the birth of my two sons in 2009 and 2011 all of which happened during a gut-punching down turn which obliterated the real estate industry I worked in. Finally coming up from air in 2013, I realized I was not very satisfied with my life.
I began to think about my life a bit differently. I started to crave freedom of schedule, time and expression. I started to verbalize what I wanted out loud. I would regularly tell Josh, my husband, and a few friends close to me that I wanted more freedom to choose my schedule, that I thought I could make more impact and money, that I wanted more time with our two young boys, that I wanted to make a greater impact at work and that I had a desire to start my own brokerage or become part of a new brokerage that I could call my own.
There was a day I woke up. There was a day I started to verbalize my state of unhappiness. First, I started to speak about what I did not want. Quickly after, I started to speak out loud about what I did want. Words have power in our life’s direction and outcome.
Today I choose my words carefully.
I choose me
I choose my life
I choose my husband, Josh
I choose my children, Dillon and Jonah
I choose to no longer be the woman behind the man
I choose my business partner
I choose my friends
I choose to share my voice
I choose to be vulnerable
I choose to pursue fear
I choose opportunities that scare me
When we wake up each day we get to plant our feet on the floor and choose who we will be today. With each passing day we get to choose our life again….and again….and again. Our attitude, direction, opportunities and decisions: all our choice! It’s funny how much more we love something – when it was our choice!
