Two Choices That Determine Your Fate

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Welcome to Darren Daily On Demand, your most trusted resource to help you become better every day. Here's your success mentor, Darren Hardy.

So this morning, I'm going to pass on to you some of these additional notes that I learned from Jim in the hopes that they spark and inspire you to do just as they have done for me. So Jim said, we all face two choices in life. And these two choices are what determine our fate. He said, each of us has two distinct choices to make about what we will do with our lives. The first choice that we make is to be less.

less than we have the capacity to be, to earn less, to have less, to read less, and to think less, to try less, and discipline ourselves less. These are the choices that lead to an empty life. These are the choices that once made lead to a life of constant apprehension instead of a life of wondrous anticipation. And the second choice?

to be all. To become all that we possibly can be. To read every book that we possibly can. To earn as much as we possibly can. To give and share as much as we possibly can. To strive and to produce and to accomplish as much as we possibly can. All of us have this choice. To do or not to do. To be or not to be. To be all or to be less. Or even to be nothing at all.

How far should we reach? It seems that every life form on this planet strives towards its maximum potential, except human beings. A tree does not grow to half its potential size, and then say, I guess that will do. A tree will drive its roots as deep as possible. It would soak up as much nourishment as it can. It will stretch as high and as wide as nature will allow, and then look down as if it reminds us of how much each of us could become if we would only do all that we can.

Why is it that human beings, surely the most intelligent life form on earth, why do we not strive to achieve our maximum potential? Why is it that we allow ourselves to stop halfway? Why are we not constantly striving to become all that we can be?

The reason is simple, we've been given the freedom of choice. And with it, many of us make the wrong choice. In most cases, choice is a gift when it comes to doing all that we can with all our abilities and opportunities. Choice can sometimes be more of a curse than a blessing. You see, all too often, we choose to do far less than we could do. We would rather relax under the shade of the growing tree than to emulate its struggle for greatness.

Jim said, neglect and choosing to do less intensifies future challenges. 10 years from now, we will all be somewhere. The question is where. Now is the time to fix the next 10 years. One of the best ways to minimize future challenges is to anticipate the results of our current neglect. This begins with asking ourselves important questions about our attention to the basics. How many books have I read in the past 90 days?

Have I taken any new courses? How regularly did I exercise last month? How much of my income have I saved and invested in this past year? How many cards and letters have I written in the past week? How many times have I written in my journal this month, studied my goals and plans? The answers to these questions and many other questions provide us with the vital information about the potential for progress and our future rewards. If we cannot discipline ourselves in the small things, we will lack the discipline to capitalize on the great opportunities when they appear.

Every error is defeated by disciplined activity. It paves the way for our future success. And that is how the life puzzle is completed. A single victory at a time. Our ultimate life objective should be to create as much as our talent, ability, and desire will permit.

Like the tree, it would be a worthy challenge for us all to stretch upward and outward to the full measure of our capabilities. Why not do all we can? Every moment that we can, the best that we can for as long as we can.

The settle for doing less than we could do is to fail in this worthy undertaking, this life, the heroic journey that you're on. Results are based on the measurement of human progress, not conversation, not explanation, not justification, results. And if our results are less than our potential suggests that they should be, then we must strive to become more today than we were the day before.

The greatest rewards are always reserved for those who bring great value to themselves and to the world around them as a result of who and what they have become on this epic journey. Inspiring words, right? I hope that they inspire your life as they have inspired mine.