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.

Ignore Everybody

Knocked off my 4th book this year "Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity". I am disappointed with how long it took me to read this one because it is an easy read and I enjoyed it. I will forewarn you that the author Hugh MacLeod does not filter his thoughts. His thoughts are written raw and communicate just what he intends without apology. Hugh is way above average intelligence. He is the world leader in cartoons drawn on the back of business cards.

This book is focused on keys to creativity but it is also packed full of life lessons. I agree with many of them but haven't taken time to articulate most of them. As I did last time, I will share with you some quotes from the book that connected with me in some way. I hope you enjoy and I am interested in your comments.

• "The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will."
• Being good at anything is like figure-skating - the definition of being good at it is being able to make it look easy. But it never is easy. Ever."
• ". . . if and when you finally come up with the "Big Idea", . . . how do you know whether or not it is "The One"? "Answer: You don't".
• "Everyone has their own private Mount Everest." "You may never reach the summit; for that you will be forgiven. But if you don't make at least one serious attempt to get above the snowline, years later you will find yourself lying on your deathbed, and all you will feel is emptiness."
• ". . . when you know full well you have had the opportunity [but didn't take it] - that hurts far more than any failure."
• "Don't worry about finding inspiration." "Inspiration precedes the desire to create, not the other way around."
• "A lot of people in business say they have 20 years' experience, when in fact they really have one years' experience, repeated 20 times."
• "If you are successful, it'll never come form the direction you predicted. Same is true if you fail."

Tribe Quotes

I finished another book this weekend on my way to reading 9 books this year. The book I finished is "Tribes" by Seth Godin. This is an absolutely fabulous book for anyone trying to make their next move. It does a particularly good job dispelling the common belief that leaders are born.

A technique I have adopted from a book I read last year ("Love is the Killer App" by Tim Sanders), is cliffing which I use to share with you some of Seth's gems. I am very interested in your comments about these gems. In Tribes, Seth says;

• "Leaders have followers. Managers have employees. Managers make widgets. Leaders make change."
• "A crowd is a Tribe without a leader. A crowd is a Tribe without communication. Smart organizations assemble a tribe."
• "... by constantly touching a tribe of people with generosity and insight, she's earned the right to lead."
• "... in hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence. - Dr. Lauence Peter (The Peter Principle)" "... in every organization everyone rises to the level at which they become paralyzed with fear. - Seth Godin"
• "If you work for someone...the actual cost of failure is absorbed by the organization, not by you." "What people are afraid of isn't failure, it's blame."
• "Leadership is a choice. It's a choice to not do nothing."
• "The easiest thing is to react. The second easiest thing is to respond. The hardest think is to initiate."
• "Flynn Berry wrote that you should never use the word 'opportunity'. It is not an opportunity, it is an obligation."
• "The very nature of leadership is that you are not doing what's been done before. If you were, you'd be following, not leading."
• "Once you choose to lead, you'll be under huge pressure to reconsider your choice, to compromise, to dumb it down, or to give up... That's the world's job: to get you to be quiet and follow."