Jolt! by Phil Cooke (whitelam books .TXT) 📕

appointment or miss a meeting. Then you waste a little time in the afternoons and start to enjoy it. Little by little, the priority gets shoved farther and farther back into the pile.

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. (Matthew 7:24–27 niv)

Jesus taught about the importance of a solid foundation for your life. In the same way, priorities are the ground you build your future on because they anchor the rest of your life. With your priorities in order, you can build any type of structure because integrity, honesty, physical health, good time management, and other positive priorities can withstand any change or challenge you face.

Don’t spend your life looking over your shoulder in fear because you lied on that report, cheated on your spouse, or transposed the final budget numbers to make the company look better. Don’t join the office gossip that could damage an employee’s future because it might help you move ahead. And don’t trade your reputation for stock options, a bonus, or a promotion.

Your priorities are your foundation. Make sure they are the kind that last, and make sure they reflect your values, your aspirations, and your life.

Too many people spend too many years working in jobs that don’t really reflect their personal priorities. As a result, every day their jobs are like sandpaper, rubbing against their spirits until they’re raw and painful. It’s like playing for the wrong team or helping the enemy.

The money may be great, your office window might have a gorgeous view, and your business card may have a fantastic title. But if you have to compromise your priorities, the price is too high. Priorities are something to value, develop, and cherish. Without them, you’re drifting without a compass, a map, or a guide.

We all have friends who have made poor choices. In most cases, they made those bad choices because they didn’t have the right priorities. Would you rather live your life with the pain of tough choices now or the pain of regret later?

» JOLT #7

BETTER CHOICES

The Keys to Strong Decision Making

It is our choices . . . that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

—J. K. ROWLING, HARY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that in itself is a choice.

—WILLIAM JAMES, NOVELIST

Everything that happens in our lives happens because of a choice. Do I get out of bed this morning? Do I go to work? Do I feed my family? Do I acquire the new company? Do I clean the house? Do I prepare for that big report? Do I read that new book on changing my life? Ever y day is an endless chain of decisions.

I’m a television producer and director, and from the moment I step onto the studio set, I’m faced with an unrelenting string of questions. Lighting, makeup, acting, staging, design, film, on and on. Actors asking about their performances, lighting options for the scene. What do we shoot first? What’s the camera angle? The job of directing a television program or movie is an endless job of making choices.

Today, instead of choices and decisions, we live in a world where people are desperately looking for excuses. The “blame someone else” mentality has seeped into the very fabric of our culture to the point where frivolous lawsuits clog our courts and waste hundreds of millions of dollars each year. When we make a mistake, we want it to be anyone’s fault but our own. We refuse to take responsibility for our decisions, and as a result, we’ve created a culture of blame. We spill coffee in our lap, and it’s the restaurant’s fault because the coffee’s too hot. We murder our neighbor, and it’s because of our conflicted childhoods. We have sexual affairs because we’re under too much stress. We cheat on tests at school because everyone else is doing it. The list continues.

Embracing change means taking responsibility for our own decisions.

I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime.

—ELISABETH KüBLER-ROSS, PSYCHIATRIST

You are at the point you are in life today because of a string of decisions you made yesterday. I call it the “waterfall effect” because every choice we make in life has consequences “downstream.” In his book Awaken the Giant Within, Anthony Robbins put it this way:

As you look back over the last ten years, were there times when a different decision would have made your life radically different from today, either for better or for worse? Maybe, for example, you made a career decision that changed your life. Or maybe you failed to make one. Maybe you decided during the last ten years to get married—or divorced. You might have purchased a tape, a book, or attended a seminar and, as a result, changed your beliefs and actions. Maybe you decided to start exercising, or to give it up. It could be that you decided to stop smoking. Maybe you decided to move to another part of the country, or to take a trip around the world. How have these decisions brought you to this point in your life? (33).

It’s not our environments, the people around us, or the conditions of our lives that determine our futures; it’s the personal choices we make or don’t make.