Choose to make an impact...

Since I have been thinking more about the choices I make, I have been a lot more conscious about how I feel right after I make a choice, and the impact on the world around me because of my choice.

Why did I just walk past that homeless man with the paper cup in his hand asking for money and not even acknowledge him? Am I that heartless?

Why didn’t I make it to the gym today? Am I seriously that lazy?

Why did I have that last Kamikaze shot? (Usually this is what I’m thinking the next morning when I wake up feeling like a semi has just driven through my forehead.)

One thing I realized is that even the smallest things I choose to do (or choose NOT to do) can have a huge impact on the world I live in. Letting someone go ahead of me through the door (“Ladies First” is a rule that should ALWAYS be enforced…), writing a letter to someone instead of sending an e-mail (Yes, there was a time when we didn’t have the internet, and you actually had to use pen and paper to send mail.), or just giving someone a hug (a 6-second hug allows for mood-boosting chemicals to be released in the brain, and has been proven to lower blood pressure.) There are countless simple acts of kindness that I can perform that can have a major impact on those around me.

Why not try it out? Do something today that brings some happiness/positive energy/love into someone else’s life. I bet you’ll feel pretty awesome afterward, and you might want to keep spreading even more Aloha in the world.

Choose to make an impact…

What do you choose to be today?

So in starting my blog (which, incidentally, I have been mentally preparing for since September 2008...don't ask.) I have been beating myself up over what to write about?

Do I write about my life?
(Voice in my head: "Would anyone read it?")

Do I write about the food I cook?
(Voice in my head: "Actually, that might work...but it's so 'Julie and Julia.'")

Do I write about my exercise and yoga routines and how to live a healthier life?
(Voice in my head: "Yes...at the risk of being deemed a younger version of Richard Simmons...")

But one thing I have been going back and forth with in my life journey (especially over the past year) has been about the choices I make, and the way my life has been formed, the way I have grown, and the person I have become because of those choices.

We make choices everyday, every minute, every second. Your alarm goes off in the morning...you choose to get up or you choose to sleep in for 5 more minutes. It's Monday and you have work...you choose to go to work, or you choose to send in an e-mail to your boss saying "I have a slight fever and will be working from home today." You're at the bar and it's Happy Hour...you choose to either have a bottle of water or take advantage of that 2 for 1 drink special that is going to end in 5 minutes (even though you've already had 8 drinks.) Life is all about choices....and the choices you make shape how you live your life.

I have been thinking about the choices I have made thus far in my life, and whether they were good, bad, OK, smart, stupid, intelligent, well thought out, impulsive, or whatever. The conclusion I have come to is that I make choices that are right for me at the time. And all those choices I have made have helped me to become the person that I am today.

We all have the power to choose how we live our lives. It's not a matter of making "the right choice" or "the intelligent choice", or even "the responsible choice." Choose to live how you want to live. Choose to be who you want to be.

I choose to be the light that empowers people to be whatever they want to be, and to do whatever they want to do.

What do you choose to be today?