Choose.

I want to circle back  to a gem I love from James Allen:

“Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will affect in the material conditions of his life. Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance.”  

This is a keen insight, built upon thought, habit and circumstance.  A genuine pattern of consequence with a lasting resonance.  An interconnectedness solely made by  and accountable to you. In certain respects, how your character is woven into a pursuit of excellence.

Then, how you choose to follow a suggested path governed by three simple questions.

#1 What thoughts hold you back?   

Is it  fear?  

Like it isn’t  within you to start? Or is it the avoidance of commitment; that it is too much to see it through. To finish.

Perhaps it is all about the unknown.  The possible uncertainty of the  outcome that dogs you.  The daunting spectre of disappointment. Discouragement’s inherent distractions. Disapproval. And ultimately, defeat.

Maybe it is the fickleness of change. A need for security. The inability to trust.  An aversion to honesty or criticism.  Selfishness. Arrogance. Ego.  Misperceptions about the call for leadership. Misconceptions about its demands for constant, unrelenting accountability, presence and effort.

And despite your efforts at containment, your thoughts rarely remain secret.

Your doubts are truly, traitors.

By word or deed, they make their way to the surface.  A little here, a little there. Followed by a hitch, the glitch, the sticking points, avoidance. Soon, all at once, you become an open book.  Your once private thoughts, come to govern habit, control action, impede achievement and prohibit excellence, all in a very public manner.

#2 What are you willing to do to change?

Not simply a change for change’s sake.  But renewal with the highest intention. The reclamation of a positive and fulfilling future through the development of the requisite and lasting habits of this instant.

Making the choice to acknowledge, address and act upon constraints now – that prevent you from maximizing your capacity in the moments yet to come.

Engaging in an intensely personal process of assessment, evaluation, reassessment, reevaluation, until the change you aspired to achieve has been accomplished and received. 

Preparing yourself to begin the work, commit the resources, and transform the internal  obstacles  of your own creation into a method of optimizing opportunity and enhancing abilities, forging a path for your own pursuit of excellence.

Mustering a level of will, faith and fortitude to maintain and nourish sustained level action.

Finishing.   No matter what.

#3 – What will be different?  

What will you endeavor to become while on this path ?  Who will you be once you get there?

How will you fit into a much bigger picture?  What will your impact be?

And then once you get “there”, where do you go from that temporary point?

Crucial questions, requiring thought, fully employed vision and an honest examination of intent.

All of which leads to choice.  And then, ultimately transformative action. The very mass of your character, woven into the fabric of excellence.

There can be no secret to this pattern that you designed, made and upheld. 

Nor to the circumstances that only you helped to create.

Essentially, it all comes down to these three questions. 

And, how you choose to answer them.  

Choose wisely.