Success in life is not difficult or tricky. It's not luck either. Success can be summed up in ONE word: alignment.

For you to succeed, in any endeavor, you must learn to align 4 basic components of your life. The four components are:

1. Your thoughts

2. Your decisions

3. Your actions

4. Your awareness

Today, we'll discuss the second basic component: your decisions.

NOTE: For more information on "your thoughts" check the archives for "Align Your Thoughts for Success"

Your decisions

Our thoughts don't control our decisions, but they do influence and steer them. Listen, to make a decision we have to make a choice of what we want to act on.

Decisions are nothing more than transitions between thoughts and actions.

Now, they are very important transitions. Without them you wouldn't be able to take action. Therefore, you need to make smart decisions to get you where you want to go.

So, how can you start to make smarter decisions? Here are 2 ways to start making smarter decisions:

1. Align your thoughts with what you want.

The thoughts you FOCUS ON the most are the ones you make better decisions about.

Your thoughts are your foundation. Focus on high energy thoughts more often and you'll start to make better, smarter decisions.

2. Learn to control pain/pleasure

Okay, you've started to align your thoughts with success. Now, you have to control how you feel about taking action on your thoughts.

Remember, decisions are just transitions. To transition from thoughts to actions you have to control your emotions.

There are 2 primary emotions: pain and pleasure.

Pain is a stronger emotion than pleasure. In other words, most people will do more to avoid pain then they will to gain pleasure.

Now, pain isn't necessarily a bad emotion. And pleasure isn't necessarily a good emotion (at least in this context). The important thing you need to know is:

How do you control pain/pleasure to make smarter decisions?

Here's a simple exercise to gain control. Pick a topic you've been focusing your thoughts on and do the following:

a. Write down 5 advantages that will GIVE YOU PLEASURE.

Example: You've been focusing on mastering your time. One advantage to this that gives you pleasure may be:

You'll be able to spend more time with your family.

b. Write down 5 disadvantages that will BRING YOU PAIN.

Example: Again, you've been focusing on mastering your time. One disadvantage to this that brings you pain may be:

You'll lose the love of your spouse and kids.

c. Now, read both lists aloud.

Really feel the advantages and disadvantages in your gut. Use these lists as leverage to gain control over the pain/pleasure you're experiencing.

Okay, you know your thoughts have influence over your decisions. You also know you have to control the pain/pleasure between your thoughts.

You're ready to make a decision...

Copyright (c) 2008 Weston Lyon