Every day we make choices, both big and small.
Those choices create the life we live. Our family, friends, coworkers, employers, commercials and all our life experiences have an impact on the choices we make. Our self-confidence, determination and beliefs, both life affirming and self-limiting, also play a key part in our decisions. Personally I think it is a mystery how it all falls together.
As I grew up I thought I made all the right choices for me. I graduated from a good college, passed the CPA exam, had the job of my dreams, got married and started a family. In 1990 my life crashed. It crashed hard. My choices did not bring me the happiness I desired.
I had to rebuild my life and relearn how to make choices. This time I focused on intentional choices. I clarified my values and I learned about my strengths. I worked on not allowing excuses, stopping the procrastination and learning to listen to my head, heart and gut.
Slowly I started to make new decisions. I took my power back.
The first step in making intentional choices is to determine my desired end result. Just wanting happiness wasn’t enough. In my personal life I had two primary goals – to be the best mom and to be happily married for 25 years.
My second step was choosing an overall life purpose. For me I wanted to use my education, experience and skillset to help others. This purpose has allowedme to bring out my passion and increase my level of personal satisfaction.
The third step is taking action toward my goals and fulfilling my life purpose.
I have also applied the intentional choices to my business.
As a business owner we have choices – who you will sell to, what you will sell, your price, your location, etc. It is easy to let the decisions fall into place without paying attention to the end result. For example; if you say yes to 1,000 individuals that you will prepare their tax returns for $150 each, you will have sales of $150,000. Those returns will need to be done between January 15 and April 15 or within 90 days. If it takes 1 hour for each return – it will provide 1000 hours of work hours or 11.1 hours of work per day every day during those 90 days and be off the rest of the year. May be great for some, but not for me.
By being intentional you make decisions that will get you the results you desire. These choices allow you to design it from an inside perspective. To fulfill my life purpose, my ideal market is a small business owner. The knowledge and experience can be priceless to a small business owner. I will be needed all year round, with more variety and less workload peaks. My intentional choices create a business that creates a lifestyle I want and fulfills my life purpose.
I encourage you to make intentional choices!
Mary Guldan-Lindstrom
