The Small Choices

Do you ever wonder how you ended up where you are today?

The position you find yourself in is the result of countless small choices you have made over the years. If you are in a good place today, it’s not luck; if you are in a bad place, struggling, it’s not an accident. Where you are today is a consequence of all your choices.

But then, why don’t we all make choices that set us up for a bright future?

The thing is, the daily choices that can guarantee a strong future often go unnoticed because there is no applause for doing the right thing, just as there’s no immediate consequence for doing the wrong thing.

Eating junk food today won’t make you unhealthy. Skipping it won’t make you healthy, either. Similarly, saving money today won’t make you rich, and not keeping won’t make you poor.

The impact of not doing the obvious things that position you well for the future isn’t immediate, and therein lies the catch. It’s the small choices we make daily that either work for us or against us, as we age.

In the short term, the difference between choices that help and choices that hurt might not be noticeable. But as days turn into weeks, weeks into years, and years into decades, these small choices create massively different results.

Now, many of us may think that we are doing the right thing, but no matter what we do, we don’t see good results.

Here’s the key – for choices to compound, you need consistency. Intensity can carry you in the short term, but if you want your results to compound, you must be consistent, over time. Unfortunately, most of us become intermittent in the absence of immediate rewards. What remains is good intention not backed by consistent action.

If you want to secure a positive future, you need to be willing to make the small choices that put you on the path to success, secure in the knowledge that time is working on your side even when the results don’t show it….yet.