The Choice

Nicholas Sparks just released his latest romantic thriller ‘The Choice’ (and yes I’ve already seen it), but do not worry, this has nothing to do with the movie.

I have begun reading Jon Acuff’s book Do Over, and so far I’m two chapters in and loving it!

What I just read most recently was perfect for today and something we must practice every day. That is to CHOOSE our attitudes and CHANGE our expectations.

To often we approach situations with an attitude that has already decided how an event will go for us, or we will enter with unreal expectations. But by choosing our attitude, we have control over how we handle the various situations life throws our way through the course of a day. Choose a good attitude every day and you’ll see changes immediately.

Expectations are tricky. Life seems easier without expectations because we will never be disappointed, but life without expectations also means a life without hopes and dreams. Something Jon Acuff suggests is to take three minutes to write out your expectations for your job or an upcoming event. Then take another three minutes and write out what you know you can expect and from there compare the two. You’ll be able to find what you can expect and you’ll learn what expectations you should put into other aspects of life like hobbies, or another job.

And just because I started out talking about ‘The Choice’ and it’s the title of this post, wellI have to put a quote from the movie in there!

“Now pay attention cause I’m about to tell you the secret to life. Ready? The whole damn thing is about choices.”

The quote is very true. You have a choice to make the rest of this day and tomorrow morning. You can either choose to let your feelings dictate your attitude and your expectations run rampant, or you can CHOOSE your attitude and CHANGE your expectations so you can have the best days of your life.

 

Fishing

“Kid 3: Maybe this isn’t even fishing.”

“Kid 2: Whadaya mean?”

“Kid 3: Well, maybe it’s not actually fishing until you catch something.”

“Kid 1: Then what are we doing?”

 

If you’ve ever been fishing you understand how odd of a hobby and sport it is. You stand on a bank or boat and just cast a bait out into the water. You let it sit there or reel it in hoping for a bite. Most of the time you get nothing. So what do you do?

You throw the line back out into the water!

And you probably repeat the process for a while until you get that one big bite and reel in that one fish you’ve been waiting for all day.

Life can be like fishing. We all have wants and desires, and we aren’t going to get exactly what we want right away. But we know if we keep working toward our goals and throwing out our line. Keep tossing your bait and you’ll eventually find what you are looking for, but until then enjoy all the other casts of life! Those empty casts are what make getting what you want so much sweeter.

168 Hours

168 hours.

That’s all you get.

Every week, no matter what.

And that number gets shorter when you consider time spent eating and sleeping, which are kind of important right?

Let’s use the remaining hours of the week to remain in good vibes. Sure there will be moments where something won’t go your way, but when that happens, you have a choice to make. You can either let negativity affect you, or you can use those moments as time to truly practice staying positive. It’s easy to be in good vibes when everything’s going your way, but it takes practice to not let the negative outcomes affect you.

Use this next week to practice staying in good vibes. At the end of every day, write down three things you are grateful happened that day. Some days your list will be way longer than just three items, and other days you’ll struggle to come up with any. But that’s your time to practice, because there is always something to be grateful about.

 

Believe In The Process

Life is a process full of ups and downs. Some you control, while others are completely out of your control. As we move through life, we are always setting goals for ourselves, whether we know it or not.

We want to have a great day.

We want a promotion.

We want to accomplish everything on our to-do list.

Courtesy of: funnyand.com

There’s nothing wrong with goals. But we can run into problems when we fail to reach our goals. It’s never enjoyable to fail at a goal, but that should not be the end of the world.

The problem with most goals people set is that they are more result oriented than process oriented. Result oriented goals have one specific result in mind. While a process oriented goals, as the name implies, focus on the process of achieving a goal.

An example of this can be found in baseball. Every hitter steps to the plate wanting a hit, I’ve never heard of a hitter stepping into the box not wanting a hit. But the goal of getting a hit is result oriented and the result is out of your control. You could hit the ball and it goes straight to a fielder and you’re out.

Courtesy of: boxseatssports.wordpress.com

A better approach would be to step up to the plate with a process oriented mindset. Make it a goal to go through your routine.

Adjust your batting gloves.

Step in the box right foot first, followed by the left.

Wave the bat toward the pitcher.

Settle in and look for your pitch.

You may get your pitch. Hit it hard and get it hit, or it may result in an out. But one thing you did is stick to your process of hitting. You didn’t let a previous result change the process. You believe in the process each and every at-bat.

Life is just like stepping in the batter’s box. We all want to have a good day, but some days bring forth things out of our control. Find a process for each day, believe in that process, and you’ll find more good than bad.

Until next time, #expectexcellence !

— Spencer

Chris Howell Photography