Up to Us

“As human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions.”
Stephen R. Covey

One of the most important things in life is our ability to choose.  We can choose to be happy or sad, to have a good attitude or bad, to work hard or be lazy, to take ownership for our results or blame others, and on and on.  It is truly amazing to me to know that the power is ours to make these choices and that no one is able to force us to be sad, lazy, or have a bad attitude because the choice is ours alone. 

So why do so many people live in misery?  Why are so many people unhappy?  Do we really choose this?  The answer is yes, we do.  And the reason so many of us do I think is because too often we believe we do not have a choice.  We believe in some way the world controls our happiness or our outcomes in life. This belief nearly always destroys our ability to be happy, and it is wrong.  The choice really is ours. 

So the challenge for today is to not allow others to control us or believe that we are not in control.  We cannot permit someone else to “put us” in a bad mood, “force us” to quit, or “lead us” to poor outcomes.  Because in reality, we make those choices not them.  Regardless of what is said, how we are treated, or what happens to us, we still decide.  To give people the power to control us or our attitudes, or actions, or behaviors, because of their actions is a choice we choose.  Let’s not make that choice.  Let’s decided now that we and only we will determine our attitudes, behaviors, happiness, and outcomes in life because we can!  Our success and happiness in life is really only up to us.