“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Maybe you have heard that your life is the result of the decisions you made.

How do you feel about that? Is this true for you? It's important that from now on,

you are aware of the power you have over your life by making decisions!

Every decision, every choice has an important influence on your life. In fact,

your life is a direct result of the choices and decisions you made in the past and

every choice carries a consequence! Start making better choices. Remember

that you choose your thoughts and even your feelings.

The most important thing is to make decisions. Whether the decision is right or

wrong is secondary. You will soon receive feedback that will help you to

progress. Once you have made a decision, go with it and take the consequences.

If it was wrong, learn from it and forgive yourself knowing that at that point in

time and with the knowledge you had, it was the best and the right decision to

take.

YOUR ATTITUDE + YOUR DECISIONS = YOUR LIFE

Victor Frankl was a Jewish psychologist imprisoned in Germany’s concentration

camps during the Second World War. He lost his entire family except his sister.

Under these terrible circumstances, he became aware of what he named “the

ultimate human freedom”, which not even the Nazi prison wards could take

away from him: they could control his external circumstances, but in the last

instance it was him who CHOSE HOW these circumstances were going to

affect him!

He found out that between STIMULUS and RESPONSE there was a small space

in time in which he had the freedom to CHOOSE his RESPONSE! This means

that even if you may not be able to control the circumstances that life presents to

you, you can always choose your response in facing those circumstances, and by

doing so have a huge impact on your life.

In other words, what hurts us is not what happens to us, but our response to what

happens to us. The most important thing is how we RESPOND to what happens

to us in our lives. And that is a CHOICE!

Do you want to be healthier? Make better choices about food and exercise. Do you want to be more successful? Make better decisions about who you surround

yourself with, what you read, and what you watch. There are no excuses!

Forgive me if I make the assumption that your life situation is not worse than

Victor Frankl’s when he made this discovery: for me being a Jew in a German

concentration camp in WW2 is as bad as it gets.

Questions to ask yourself:

What decisions could you make today to start change?

Will you choose to be more flexible? More positive? Healthier? Happier?

Action Steps:

1) Write down at least three changes that you want do make today: 1

________________________________________

2________________________________________

3________________________________________

2) Read Viktor Frankl’s book “Man in search of meaning”.

“Peak performance begins with your taking complete responsibility for your life

and everything that happens to you.”

Brian Tracy

"Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves

responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.”

Sigmund Freud

There is only one person that's responsible for your life and that is YOU! Not

your boss, not your spouse, not your parents, not your friends, not your clients,

not the economy, not the weather. YOU! The day we stop blaming others for

everything that happens in our life, everything changes! Taking responsibility for

your life is taking charge of your life and becoming the protagonist of it. Instead

of being a victim of circumstances, you obtain the power to create your own

circumstances or at least the power to decide how you are going to act in the face

of circumstances that life presents to you. It doesn’t matter what happens to you

in your life; it matters what attitude you adopt. And the attitude you adopt is

your choice!

If you blame your life situation on others, what has to happen to make your life

better? All of the others have to change! And that my friend I tell you, is not

going to happen. If you are the protagonist, YOU have the power to change the

things that you don't like in your life! You are in control of your thoughts,

actions, and feelings. You are in control of your words, the series you watch on

TV, and the people you spend your time with. If you don't like your results,

change your input - your thoughts, emotions, and expectations. Stop reacting to

others and start responding. Reaction is automatic. Responding is consciously

choosing your response.

You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing:

no one to blame - Erica Jong The victim says: Every bad thing in my life is

others’ fault, but if you are not part of the problem, then you also can’t be a

part of the solution or - in other words - if the problem is caused by the outside,

the solution is also on the outside. If you’re coming in late to work because of

“traffic”, what has to happen so that you can get to work on time? Traffic has to disappear magically! Because as long as there is traffic - you will always be late.

Or you can act like a protagonist and leave home on time. Then it depends on

you.

So once again: even if you don’t have control over the stimuli that environment

sends you continuously, you have the liberty do choose your behavior in facing

the situation.

The person with a “victim mentality” only reacts, is always innocent, and

constantly blames others for his or her life situation, while using the past as

justification and putting their hopes on a future which will miraculously bring

solutions to problems or a change in others who are causing the troubles.

The protagonist knows that he or she is responsible, chooses adequate behavior

and holds himself accountable. He uses the past as a valuable experience from

which to learn, lives in the present where he sees constant opportunities for

change, and decides and goes after his future goals. The most important question

is: “Who will you choose to be – by your actions – when life presents you with

these circumstances?”

Gandhi said it very nicely: “They can’t take away our self-respect if we don’t

give it to them.”

“It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action

and discipline that enabled us to follow through.”

Zig Ziglar

“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.”

Napoleon Hill

This is one of the first chapters, because it will be the foundation of your future

success! Your way to success and happiness is deeply connected to your

willpower and commitment. These character traits will decide whether you do

what you said you would do and go through with it. These will keep you going

towards your goals even when everything seems to go against you. Self-

discipline is doing the things you need to do, even if you are not in the mood

for it. If you train to be self-disciplined and have the will to succeed, you can do

great things in your life. But even if you don’t have the slightest bit of self-

discipline within you right now - don’t worry. You can start training your self-

discipline and willpower from this moment on! Self-discipline is like a muscle.

The more you train it, the better you get. If your self-discipline is weak right

now, start training it by setting yourself small, reachable goals. Write down the

success you have and keep in mind that you don't have limits - only the ones you

set for yourself.

Visualize the benefits you will have at the end of the road: For example if you

want to go running at 6 a.m. in the morning and you just don't seem to make it

out of bed - imagine how good you will feel when you are at the fitness level

that you want to be at and how great you will look. Then jump out of bed, put on

your running clothes, and go! Remember: This book will only work if you have

the will and the discipline to make it work!

What is your word worth? Take your commitments seriously! Because not

keeping your commitments has a terrible consequence: you lose energy, you lose

clarity, you get confused along the way to your goals, and even worse you lose

self-confidence, and your self-esteem takes a hit! To avoid this, you have to

become aware of what is really important to you and act in line with your values.

A commitment is a choice! Only make commitments that you really want. That can mean fewer commitments and more “NOs”. If you commit - keep your

commitment whatever it takes. Give them the importance and value that they

deserve and be aware of the consequences of not keeping them.

Chapter 1: Rewrite your story

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change”

Wayne W. Dyer

The first time I came in contact with this idea was nearly 25 years ago while

reading Jane Robert’s book “Seth speaks”. Seth says you are the writer,

director and main actor of your story. So if you don’t like how the story is

playing out…change it! At that time I thought it’s kind of a comforting idea,

gave it a try, and have lived by it ever since - in good times and bad times. It

doesn’t matter what happened in your past. Your future is a clean sheet!

You can reinvent yourself! Every day brings with it the opportunity to start a

new life! You get to choose your identity at each and every moment! So who are

you going to be? It’s up to you to decide who you are going to be from this day

on. What are you going to do?

If you DO some of the things suggested in this book, create new habits, and do

just some of the many exercises that you will find here, things will start to shift.

It’s not going to be easy and you will need discipline, patience, and

persistence. But the results will come.

In 2008, when FC Barcelona’s coach Josep “Pep” Guardiola took charge of the

team that was in a desolate state, he told the 73000 people in attendance in the

stadium and the millions of viewers on Catalonian television, in his inauguration

speech: “We can’t promise you titles, what we can promise you is effort and that

we will persist, persist, persist until the end. Fasten your seatbelts - we are going

to have fun”. This speech started the most successful period in the 115 years

history of the club and few people think it can ever be repeated. The team went

on to win 3 national championships, 2 national cups, 3 Spanish Supercups, 2

European Supercups, 2 Champions Leagues, and 2 World Club Championships

in their 4 years of domination of World football. (If you don’t follow soccer:

This is like a mediocre NFL team winning 4 Superbowls in a row).

They rewrote their story.

Now it’s your turn. Make some effort and persist, persist, persist! Don’t give up!

Fasten your seatbelts and have some fun!

This is an excerpt from a life changing book, Change your habits, change your life.

A short stories for understanding our life much better..