How to Have a Focus for Better Choices

A focus for better choices will move you from where you are to where you want to be. You unlock the your better by knowing your way, understanding your what, and defining your why. Recognizing what got you to this moment will help you determine the better choices to move you out, through, or beyond.

Focus for Better Choices

I sat at the high point in the road with the floodwaters spinning around the tires. It wasn’t the first time the creek had backed up over our road like this. It wouldn’t be the last time.

It was the first time it had been so high the water started seeping into the truck.

In the past, I would drive slowly through the still waters making sure not to create a wake that might drown the engine. There was even the one time we came in during the night and had an escort of two beavers swimming along beside us as we made our way to the higher point of the driveway.

Those times, I had been uncomfortable but I didn’t get scared. When the water touched my foot, fear flooded in as well.

Instead of turning into our driveway, which would have dropped me down a little farther into the water, I pulled up to the highest point on the road.

My plan was simple. I would sit at the high point until the water dropped. It usually only took a little while for it to happen. As soon as the dam opened the locks, the water level would drop. The longest we ever had to wait was the floods of Christmas a few years back. That drop took over a day.

I was willing to wait.

I called my husband to explain my plan and then settled in to see how long it would take. I never found out. Instead, my husband had put on his waders and walked down to where I was waiting. He made me move over and he drove us home through the high water.

To this day, I do not drive when the water is up because I don’t want to get caught in a similar situation. I have learned from a bad experience how to make better choices for my driving journey (my husband, not so much, but that’s a different story).

In life, there will be those decisions that leave you with water seeping in through the doors. There will be decisions that leave you waiting until the waters drop. There will be decisions that leave you in the hands of someone else willing to take the wheel.

Don’t beat yourself because of the decisions you have made. Learn from those decisions and use them to guide you to the better choices for your next step.

How to Make the Better Choices

• Know where you are going. It doesn’t matter how good the plan is if you don’t know where you want it to take you. You can’t make better choices until you define your destination.
• See beyond the moment. Just because it looks better right now doesn’t mean that it is the better for the journey. Just because it is a short cut doesn’t mean it will make the journey easier. Just because it will work in the moment doesn’t mean it will be better in the long run. Hold up the option to the BIG DREAM goals and see how it aligns.

• Be willing to accept assistance. Your better choices may be connected to the abilities or gifts of another. Be okay with scooting over and letting someone else take the wheel.

Don’t get stuck in the rising waters, or at least don’t repeat the stuck moment. Learn from what you have done. Learn from the experiences of others. Focus on what you can do better and then make the better choices to create your reality.

You’ve got this.

Be blessed,