Who you are today is a result of the choices you've made over the past 5 years. Who you are to become in 5 years time will be a result of the choices you make today. Choose wisely.
- author unknown

I heard that quote at an Amway seminar over a decade ago, and I've never forgotten it. Who you are today is a result of your choices, and who you are to become will also be a result of your choices.

Who do you want to become? What do you want to achieve?

All you need to do is make the choices in your life that will give you the results that you want. If you want to be a pilot, then you might need to start choosing to take flying lessons. If you want to be a championship runner, then maybe you should choose to start running now, and choose a personal trainer to help you. If you want to buy a house, then you might need to choose ways of organising your money better.

Any goal that you might have can be broken down into a number of steps, and the successful completion of each step can help you chart your progress towards your goal. Each step - including the first step - is simply a choice that you make. Do you do this, or do you do that? Do you start now, or do you start tomorrow - or not at all? Now that you've done this, do you do that - or something completely different?

In order to achieve your goals and become the person that you want to be, with the life that you want to have, you need to start making choices that will lead you to your goals.

If you haven't been happy with your life so far, it's probably because you've made the wrong or unfortunate choices which have resulted in things happening that you didn't really want. How many times do you do the same thing over and over and over again, believing that if you keep on trying it, eventually it'll work?

Albert Einstein once said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Stop doing what hasn't been working. Start doing it differently. Instead of hoping for a magical result to appear, to be created at the wave of the wantd of some magical fairy godmother, start taking responsibility for the choices you make and the consequences of those choices. You can use those consequences to make things happen for you.

Here's an example. Let's just say that you wanted a pay rise. The first choice would be to make yourself more valuable to your employer, so as to justify them spending more on you. You might do your work better, or do some courses that end up qualifying you for higher-paying positions. Either way, the consequences of you doing those things will obtain for you the results you're looking for.

Look for things to do where the consequences of your actions will get you what you want. Instead of doing things 'willy nilly', without regard for the consequences of your actions, think instead of what might happen if you do 'this', or 'that', or even 'something else altogether'. Work out for yourself how things will turn out if you make those choices that, so far, only exist in your head. Once you work out a path, or 'an action plan', start actually making those choices that, in your head at least, will give you what you want in life.

If you can see yourself, in your mind, becoming that championship runner, then you can make it happen. Just work out what you need to do, and do it. One step at a time, one choice at a time.

Who you are today is a result of the choices you've been making. Who you are to become will be a result of the choices you start making now. Choose wisely.