How Important are Your Decisions?

Life is full of decisions. How do you know when a decision is an important decision? How do you know when your decisions impact the lives of other people? When is your decision changing the future?

I just finished a book that my wife gave me for Valentine's Day. It's by Andy Andrews titled "Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success, The Traveler's Gift". Honestly from the title it sounds like just another motivational book about key points to be successful. And that it is, but what makes this book worth reading are the carefully articulated lessons of life. This book helps you hear these messages from a new perspective. It is written as historical fiction but is clearly connected to real life today.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book (no spoilers). These quotes have an even better message in context in the book but they also stand alone. If you read this book, I would love to hear your opinion about it and some of your favorite quotes.

• The ultimate outcome of anyone's life is a matter of personal choice.
• You are where you are because of your thinking. Your thinking dictates your decisions.
• Even the present is constantly becoming the past now . . . and now . . . and now. The past will never change, but you can change the future by changing your actions today.
•  Do battle with the challenges of your present, and you will unlock the prizes of your future.
• My future is immediate.
• When faced with a decision, . . . in most cases God is waiting for me.
• . . . if you are afraid of criticism, you will die doing nothing.
• Most people fail at whatever they attempt because of an undecided heart. . . . When confronted with a challenge, the committed heart will search for a solution.
• Indecision limits the almighty (God) and His ability to perform miracles in your life. He has put the vision in you - proceed! To wait, to wonder, to doubt, to be indecisive is to disobey God.
• . . . to live life to its fullest - well, that is a choice.
• Unjust criticism has no impact whatsoever upon the truth. And the only sure way to avoid criticism is to do nothing and be nothing.
• While public opinion might sway back and forth, right and wrong do not.
• . . . forgiveness is that it is not a reward that must be earned; forgiveness is a gift to be given.
• . . . forgiveness has value only when it is given away. . . . By the act of forgiving, I am no longer consumed by unproductive thoughts.
• . . . the person who lives according to the opinion of others is a slave.
• The only limit to your realization of tomorrow is the doubt to which you hold fast today.
• A person who is depressed is spending to much time thinking about the way things are now and not enough time thinking about how he wants things to be.
• Constant detours do not bring a man into the presence of greatness.