"The choices you make determine the kind of life you’re going to have."

Erin Pavlina’s Blog » Blog Archive » How Your Beliefs Affect Your Choices:

"I make decisions based on the belief that life is a school; I’m here to learn, to teach, to grow, and eventually to graduate. He makes decisions based on the belief that we are just biological entities enjoying a very brief and pointless existence; to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Now, I’m not saying he is wrong to have these beliefs or to spend his life the way he chooses. I just want to point out that your beliefs affect your choices. What beliefs do you carry and what choices do those beliefs cause you to make? Are you happy with the results?

My life is very fulfilling to me. I enjoy getting up early and seizing the day. I love writing and learning and helping others. I consciously look for ways to improve my life and the lives of others. On the other hand, my friend suffers from nightly insomnia, he lives in a home full of useless clutter (most of it junk mail), he has to drag himself out of bed in the morning and find the motivation to go to work, his work does not please him, he comes home and turns on the tv or the computer and loses himself in fantasy. He has been dating the same woman for nearly 6 years and isn’t sure if he wants to get married but is delaying making the decision because it doesn’t really matter and it will keep for another day. I feel sad for him because nothing excites him more than what happened on Lost last night.

What beliefs do you have and how are they affecting your choices? Do you feel those beliefs serve you? Are your beliefs holding you back from having the life you want? If so, drop them! Get rid of the beliefs that don’t make you happy. Adopt new ones. Whether life after death exists or not doesn’t really matter. What matters is how you feel about the life you’re living now.

The choices you make determine the kind of life you’re going to have. And that can mean the difference between a life of happiness and fulfillment or a life of misery and emptiness."