Every moment is priceless, and each one belongs to us
to use as we choose.
Although we cannot achieve everything we want in one
day, there is enough time today to begin with what we
have. Today, we can make a commitment to paint our
personal life masterpieces--one brush stroke at a
time.
We were meant to enjoy life, to live completely, and to
experience all the exciting gifts that God has offered
to us. In each moment, we move toward or away from any
goal through our choices and actions. To live
deliberately, we must get out of auto-pilot mode and
become conscious of our choices.
When we live consciously, we live deliberately. We use
our minds as the magnificent tools that God designed;
we make up our minds to act in constructive and loving
ways.
In auto-pilot, or ego mode, the mind is no longer our
tool--the mind uses us instead of us using it. It
"makes us up", manipulating us to react in hurtful
ways to situations and events that are different from
what we imagined as ideal. Observe the mind doing this,
and it stops; the auto-pilot mind does not like our
conscious presence to spy on it.
Inside most people, there are treasures and talents
that they have not discovered. When we rush through the
day without observing our thoughts with the eyes of the
heart, we will overlook those treasures.
As Alan Cohen insightfully points out in the article
below, no one else can live our lives for us. The self-
awareness that only human beings have, is within us.
Each person has the sole responsibility to live in ways
that foster soul growth, fulfillment, and joy.
Each one of us will have a unique idea of what living
deliberately means. For me, it involves these five
actions:
1. Choose what is essential: my purpose, joy, and
legacy.
2. Express gratitude for experiencing the essential.
3. Clean away what is not essential.
4. Take corrective actions when needed.
5. Continue to see what is essential, and purposely
repeat these actions each day.
Consider this question: What does living
deliberately mean to you?
By using our minds and our time on purpose, expressing
gratitude for all we have, and sharing some of our time
with those we care about, we can experience the joy of
a deliberate life.
