by Zig Ziglar

All of life is a series of choices, and what you choose to give life today will determine what life will give you tomorrow. You can choose to get drunk tonight, but when you do, you have chosen to feel miserable tomorrow. You can choose to light up a cigarette today, but when you do, you have chosen to die fourteen minutes early. You can choose to eat properly today and when you do, you have chosen to be healthier tomorrow. You can choose to be overweight, or you can choose to be the right weight. You can choose to be happy or you can choose to be sad. You can even choose, according to some authorities, to be insane - and some people make that choice to escape the responsibilities of dealing with life on a daily basis.

For twenty-four years of my adult life, by choice I weighed over two hundred pounds. I say this because my lifetime (at least since my infancy) I have never accidentally eaten anything! Every bite is carefully planned and deliberately taken. I even set aside at least three times every day when I concentrate almost exclusively on taking those bites of food. When I choose to eat too much today, I have chosen to weigh too much tomorrow. In 1972, I chose not to be overweight and took appropriate steps to reach and maintain the correct weight. It was one of my better choices.

Never will I forget the night my wife (to whom I affectionately refer as "the Redhead") and I were in our favorite ice cream parlor when a young man and his girlfriend walked in. He appeared to be about twenty-three or twenty-four years old. I gently nudged the Redhead and pointed out the couple and the following dialogue took place.

Zig: "Do you see that couple?"

The Redhead: "Yes, I do."

Zig: "Wonder what happened to him."

The Redhead: "What do you mean?"

Zig: "Well, look at him! He`s been in some kind of accident. He`s hurt!"

The Redhead: "Aw, honey, he`s not hurt! He`s been to the barbershop."

Zig: "You mean he paid money to look like that?" (In my lifetime, I`ve never seen a human being

that badly mutilated from the ears up. It was awesome!)

The Redhead: "Sure, honey! He`s trying to be different and original, so he`s chosen to imitate some rock star."

Don`t misunderstand, one of the things I love best about my country is the fact that we are free and can choose to look any way we please. The major point I wish to make is then when that young fellow chose to look that way, he also chose to eliminate 98 percent of all employment opportunities. For example, we could not consider hiring him at our company. He would be a total distraction and we`d have to spend half our time just explaining him!

When a young person chooses to sit up late at night watching television or socializing, he has chosen to be sleepy in class the next day and, consequently, absorb less of the information he needs to know in order to be successful in the competitive world in which he lives. When we choose to be mean, nasty, and ornery to other people, we have chosen to be treated in a mean, nasty, and ornery fashion by others. By the same token, when we choose to be thoughtful and considerate of others, we`ve chosen to be treated in a thoughtful and considerate manner. The list is endless, but the message is always the same: You are free to choose, but the choices you make today will determine what you will have, be, and do in the tomorrows of your life.

You can choose to take the necessary steps to help you succeed as a manager, or you can choose to ignore the experience of successful managers and take the consequences for you and your employees. We must teach our employees that they are responsible for their attitudes and their conduct and that in life, every choice we make, whether it’s good or bad, has consequences! Once those consequences are thoroughly understood, it’s easier to make the right choices. As Mary Crowley, an outstanding Christian businesswoman and author, says, "We are free up to a point of choice, then the choice controls the chooser."

The Choice is Yours

After being informed that my flight to Dallas, Texas, had been delayed for three hours, I had a choice to make: get upset or make the best of the opportunity. Either way, the next flight still left in three hours.

I chose not to get upset for one simple reason: I don’t have, need, or want ulcers, high blood pressure, a heart problem, or any of the negative consequences that go with reacting. I have chosen to respond to negative situations in life instead of reacting to those situations. Even if this does not benefit anyone else, I’m persuaded that it is the best thing I can do for me. When it’s the best thing for me, then obviously that puts me in a far better position to do my work, which basically is designed to help other people. That, my friend, is exactly the same position you are in. When you respond, you are making real progress toward living a healthier, happier life and developing effective, efficient, and happy employees.

As a practical matter, I do not know anyone who works for that monstrous airline. From the chairman of the board to the people who handle the baggage, I cannot give you the name of a single one. However, it is their airline and if they choose to do so, they can cancel my flight. But they can’t cancel my day! It’s mine. God Himself gave it to me with written instructions on how I am to use it. He told me to "rejoice- and be glad in it."

The problem with letting others "cancel your day" is that they just might want to cancel a second or even a third day (you know how folks are!). Then they might want to cancel a whole week or even a month. Some people have even permitted others to cancel a lifetime.

Your response- or reaction- to the negative reveals what’s inside of you. It exposes your heart and shows the kind of person you really are. The problem is that most people have a tendency to react instead of respond. They have a tendency to blame everything and everybody for the difficulties and reversals in life. What about you?

Think with me for a moment. If you are the way you are because "when your mother was pregnant with you she was scared by a runaway horse, and consequently you have been scared of big, brown animals ever since... “If you are the way you are because of someone else, then here’s what you do: You take the person who’s responsible for the way you are to a psychologist, the psychologist will treat him or her and you will get better! See how crazy that is? If you fall and break your arm, you don’t send a friend to the doctor to have his arm set. You don’t even send the one who pushed you! You go yourself- you take personal responsibility! It’s the same for your mental and emotional health.

It’s also the same for being a top performer- you must accept personal responsibility. You will be glad you did.

Written in Stone

There are some things you simply are not going to change. If you were born white, you are going to stay white. If you were born black, you are going to stay black. I don’t care how much thought you give it, you’re not going to add a single cubit to your height. You’re not going to change when you were born, where you were born, or to whom you were born. As a matter of fact, you’re not going to change one single whisper that’s taken place in the yesterdays of your life. But tomorrow is a different subject.

Source: ChristianBusinessDaily.com

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