2824: Everything is a Choice by Cylon George of Spiritual Living For Busy People on How To Feel More Empowered

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[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_01] This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 2824, Everything Is A Choice by Cylon George of SpiritualLivingForBusyPeople.com. And I'm your narrator Justin Malik, the guy that reads blogs or articles to you every single day of the year, including weekends and holidays. I appreciate you listening every single day, it really means a lot. We're gonna get right to our next post as we optimize your life.

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_01] Everything Is A Choice by Cylon George of SpiritualLivingForBusyPeople.com Quote, I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become. Carl Jung

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_01] Do you feel like you're suffocating under the weight of your own life? You've got so many things to do, you don't know where to start. You wonder how life got this way, yearning for a time when you didn't have to worry about the next thing on your to-do list. Take a look at that list. Now ask yourself, who put that item on my list? Now do that for the next one, and the next one, and the next.

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_01] Let me guess, was the answer, me, me, and me? If so, go find a mirror, take a hard look at it, and then jump for joy. If most of the things that keep you bogged down in your life were put there by you, then you have a simple solution to your problem, right? The power of a little phrase. Well, not quite. The reason it's not so easy to tame your busy life is that most of us don't experience the things we do as choices of our own making, but as external forces acting upon us.

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_01] I have to make dinner for the kids every single night. I have to fix the back deck by next week. I have to find Mr. Right by this time next year. I have to work seven days a week to keep food on the table. I have to accept every after-work gathering invitation. I have to read these ten books by the end of summer. All of a sudden, life is filled with that thing that you have to do, but you can't possibly find the time to fit them all in. Furthermore, you find no joy in them. You suffocate.

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_01] The reason? Because of the little phrase, I have to. When your self-talk includes these three little words, you find yourself feeling more burdened and less joyful. Where did all these I have to's come from? Have you ever taken the time to examine this? No? Well, let's do that now. A conversation between obligated self and liberated self. You may not know this, but there's a constant inner dialogue going on between your obligated self and liberated self.

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_01] If you slow down long enough to listen in, you might hear something like this. Obligated self? I have to mow the lawn today. Liberated self? Says who? Why, me, of course. Is it something you want to be doing right now? Well, not really. I'd rather be reading a book. So why not do that? Are you kidding me? So that people can say that I'm lazy and self-indulgent? Besides, the grass is overgrown and the lawn needs to be mowed.

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_01] The neighbors will start to notice and complain. So what? We'll have a bad reputation around town. Our property value will go down. And we'll get reported to our municipality. How do you know that? I don't know. I've trash-talked other people's overgrown lawns. I've also learned a thing or two from home improvement shows and the like. Okay. What is the likelihood of these fears coming true? I have no idea. Not sure if it matters. Just the thought of any of them happening is enough to cause me concern.

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_01] So you're saying that it's the thoughts in your own head rather than actual consequence that's keeping you obligated? Never thought of it that way, but I guess so. Are you happy with this? No, it's not the fact that I feel compelled to mow the lawn that makes me miserable. It's the reason why I feel compelled. I hate to think that I'm controlled by my fear of what others think of me and my fears about the past and future. What would life be like if you could eliminate the thought, I have to mow the lawn?

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_01] I'd probably just mow the lawn without all the painful stories playing in my head. Or I would just do something else and mow the lawn another time. I guess I'd be willing to deal with the consequences of my choice. That's true. Do you think you would be happier? I think so. I think I'd feel liberated from my self-limiting beliefs. Come to think of it, why do I choose to live in a neighborhood that values lawn mowing well beyond what I'm comfortable with? There are so many other things I can spend my valuable time doing. I don't know. Only you can answer that.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_01] Sounds like you have an opportunity to make some new decisions. Yes, I do. And it's opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me. There are no obligations, only choices and consequences. The sad truth is that we frame most of the things we do in our lives as obligations. But the real truth is that obligations don't exist. Only choices. Every choice has consequences. Obligations are those choices that we're terrified of bearing the consequences for not doing.

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_01] If you say, I want to mow the lawn because I'm afraid of what the neighbors would say, you'll likely get to a healthier place more quickly than by saying, I have to mow the lawn today. Of course, you can substitute any obligation that is holding you hostage. Just try stating the truth plainly and you'll see that obligation quickly transform into a choice. You'll then be confronted with another choice. Make peace with the choice you've made or make a different choice.

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_01] You just listened to the post titled, Everything is a Choice by Ceylon George of SpiritualLivingForBusyPeople.com. As a small business owner, you never clock out and neither does LinkedIn Jobs. While you're running your business, LinkedIn Jobs is running a powerful search for your next great hire. We've been lucky finding our team here at Optimal Living Daily. And I think LinkedIn Jobs would have taken luck out of the equation, finding us the best quickly. Post your job for free or pay to promote

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[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_01] Approximately 72% of small and medium-sized businesses on LinkedIn say that LinkedIn helps them find high-quality candidates. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash selection. That's linkedin.com slash selection to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Thank you to Ceylon. This one reminded me of the idea of locus of control. He said the reason it's not so easy to tame your busy life

[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_01] is that most of us don't experience the things we do as choices of our own making, but as external forces acting upon us. That's having an external locus of control where we believe that something that's occurring in our lives is really because of others or external circumstances that we can't do much about. But on the other hand, someone with an internal locus of control will think that it's mostly within their control

[00:07:52] [SPEAKER_01] and will likely take action to do whatever they can to fix it instead of sort of being grumpy about it and throwing their hands in the air. This applies to a lot of different circumstances, but when locus of control is talked about, it's usually pretty general actually. And while it is a spectrum, we usually fall into one of these buckets. But clearly there's advantage to having an internal locus of control instead of an external, which Ceylon was talking about in today's article. So it's something to think about

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_01] where you might fall on that spectrum and if there's anything you'd like to do about it. But with that, wishing you a happy rest of your day. Thank you for being here and I'll see you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.