Nurturing Your Ability to Make Decisions: Transforming Life Beyond ‘Just for Once’ Moments for Lasting Success
Life changes in moments of decision
Coffee or tea? Hot or cold? With milk or without milk? Want to add sugar in it or not?… This is the decision you probably make every single day. And how even that simple decision you make every day changes your day-to-day life!
Think about anything you decide and how those decisions shape your future in a positive or negative way. If you are somebody who is on a diet to lose weight, you probably wouldn’t go with sugar in your coffee or tea. But if you do, then that decision will lead you to not losing weight which will make you feel like a failure on your goal.
We often think nothing happens if we change our habit only for once. Like I heard so many times from people telling those who are working on losing weight this sentence “oh, come on it’s thanksgiving nothing happens if you quit one day.” Or people go by saying “just one drink, you won’t gain weight from one single drink or meal.” Do those sentences sound familiar to you? You either heard those directly told to you or you were witnessed somebody told to your friend. What happened in those moments was, maybe you don’t gain weight with one single sugary drink and even if you do you can lose that the next day by changing some of your exercise and diet. But the point here is, your mind creates a habit of quitting along the way. You tend to start having those “just one time” moments a lot and you end up not losing weight for months or not reaching your ultimate goal because of those cheating meals. You are again in a place where you started in the first place but lost months of your time, effort, and probably money on the tools you purchased that were going to help you to lose weight. But obviously it didn’t work out. I am saying this confident enough because I have been there! And I had been there SO MANY times in my life!!! I don’t even remember how many times I started to lose weight and lots of times I failed. WHY? I already told you… All those just one time decisions ruined my goal. People around me told me those sentences and I ended up following their suggestions and I cheated. Then, those moments expanded and I created new excuses such as; it’s Christmas, it’s the weekend, it’s my birthday… You name it. Now I know how important it is to not change any decision about your goal. If you really want it, then you should go get it and do it no matter what!
Wait there is more!!
Just for one time excuses can also appear in your professional life! You could start saying “I’m not feeling recording that podcast episode today, I’ll do it tomorrow.” You could start postponing your business meetings, spending more time on instagram or whatever social media you like the most. You could start not working as much as you worked for your job and so many more examples. What happens at the end of the day is, you start losing your self-confidence, you will be behind in your goals, and you just feel bad about yourself.
Think about the different parts of your life where you’ve had those ‘just for once’ moments. It’s like a quick thrill, but have you considered how these fleeting decisions might be holding you back? They can create this sense of standing still, preventing you from seizing new opportunities and making wise choices. Don’t let these momentary impulses overshadow your journey towards growth and happiness. Take a step back, embrace the bigger picture, and make choices that align with your long-term aspirations. Remember, every decision you make has the power to shape your future in extraordinary ways.
Do you see how important every single decision we make in our day-to-day life is?
So what to do to avoid feeling like a failure when you start making the “just for once decisions”?
First of all I want to clarify something here, it would be different if you are taking a break from your goals and dreams. It is ok to pause in life and be ok with that. I am talking about having a goal and not pausing but creating that negative habit of just for once decisions that ruin your achievements.
As long as you have a goal and commitment to it, then let’s go without having the just for once decision and get it together by following these 3 steps:
- Pause when you are about to make a just for once decision. Be in the moment and breathe before you make any decision.
- Visualize yourself in the moment where you accomplished your goal! Feel how you feel in that moment and come back to the present moment. You will most likely make a decent decision.
- Distract yourself from that just for once decision because it will try to get you by giving you all those juicy ideas. Go do something different from that decision, find something to do that still keeps you on the track.
Next time when you are about to make just for once decision, slowly follow these steps. You will see it works!
If you have a story to share about this, I’d be so happy to hear from you. You can email me your stories at burcu@joyyburcu.com.
Looking forward to connecting!
