How conscious are your choices?
I’ve increasingly come to realise that life is about a series of choices, day after day
Not just the big decisions we consciously wrestle with, but the smaller choices we make almost without noticing
How we respond to something that happens. What gets our time and attention. What we say yes to. What we put off. The assumptions we make. The possibilities we explore and those we dismiss. How we show up for ourselves and the people around us
Individually, many of these choices don't feel particularly significant
The interesting part is what happens when we make those choices repeatedly
A choice becomes a pattern. A pattern compounded becomes a habit. And somewhere along the way, we can stop seeing it as a choice at all. It simply becomes “the way things are”
This works well when those choices align with our vision and intentions. Less so when they come from a place of stress, fear, lack, or low self-esteem
Why is this important when it comes to business?
We look at a diary with no space in it, and it feels like our time is not our own. Yet that diary is the result of dozens of choices about what we've said yes to. What we've prioritised. What we've allowed to interrupt us from more strategic tasks, and what we've decided needs our personal attention
We can find ourselves with a team that relies on us for too much, without necessarily noticing all the occasions when it felt quicker to answer the question, solve the problem, or take something back rather than allowing someone else to work it out
How often we put other people's monkeys on our own back
We have clients we no longer really want to work with. Staff members that don't fit. Services that aren't as profitable as they should be. Meetings that happen because they've always happened, and things we keep putting off until we have 'more time'
Of course, we don't consciously choose every circumstance we find ourselves in - life and business are much more complicated than that - but much of what we experience today has been shaped by choices we've made along the way
And that's worth noticing
Because if our choices have helped create where we are, different choices can help shape what's next
Why do we stop noticing?
We couldn't possibly make every choice consciously. We'd get very little done if we stopped to consider every action, reaction and decision throughout the day. We need autopilot
The challenge comes when we're operating on it in areas that really matter
This becomes even more likely when we're busy, tired or under pressure. When our capacity is stretched, our attention narrows towards what's immediately in front of us. We solve today's problems, respond to what's shouting loudest and fall back on familiar ways of doing things
We say things like:
👉 “I haven't got time to try something else”
👉“It's easier if I do it myself”
👉“I'll sort that when things calm down”
👉“It's just the way it is”
Sometimes those statements are absolutely true
Often, we're simply too close to what's going on to notice and see alternatives
Creating enough space to see the choice
This is one of the reasons I believe so strongly in creating space to think
Not because every decision requires hours of reflection, but because we need enough of a gap to interrupt the automatic response
To notice what we're doing, and ask whether it's actually what we want to keep doing
This is also why, as part of a framework to support calmer, clearer and more conscious thinking, the first step in The Bridge of Choice is Pause
There needs to be enough space to recognise that a choice exists in the first place
Sometimes that pause will confirm that what we're already doing is absolutely the right thing to do. We make the same decision, but this time we've consciously chosen it
At other times, a different perspective allows us to see possibilities that weren't visible when we were reacting from habit, pressure or assumption
And that's where choice becomes powerful. Not because we can control everything, but because we become more conscious of what we can influence
Choice isn't the same as control
I think this distinction matters
We don't get to choose everything that happens to us. Things happen in business and life that we wouldn't choose and often can't change
There will always be things outside our control
Becoming more conscious of our choices isn't about pretending otherwise. It's about noticing where we still have some influence even within those shifting circumstances:
👉 We may not be able to choose what has happened, but we can often choose how we respond
👉 We may not be able to change something immediately, but we can choose the next step
👉 We may not be able to create more hours in the day, but we can question what we're choosing to give our energy and attention to in those hours
And sometimes the choice is simply to stop accepting something as 'the way it is', and start exploring what else might be possible
What are your choices creating?
The choices we make rarely exist in isolation. They become the way we work, the expectations we create, the relationships we build, the habits we develop and the way we spend our time. Eventually, they become part of the business and life we've created around us
What are you continuing to accept, assume, avoid or repeat, without really questioning it?
And perhaps most importantly:
Are the choices you're making today, taking you towards or away from what you really want?
Are they helping to make the boat go further, faster or smoother - in business and beyond?
CHOOSE TO CHOOSE
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Ever feel like your head’s so full you don’t know which way to turn?
You're not alone. Especially during the summer, when work and school holidays collide and the juggle can get real.
So what’s the answer?
Strangely, it’s to think less AND think more.
Think Less:
Quieten the constant chatter.
Find your thing. Go for a run. Sit in the garden. Breathe deeply for a minute with your eyes shut (my personal go-to).
No phone. No rush. Just pause
Imagine your mind like a snowglobe — if you stop swirling it, the flakes settle and you can see much clearer again.
Think More :
Not more worrying or more overthinking. More intentional thinking.
What actually matters right now? What can wait? What would make today feel good?
What is most important to do next???? (My favourite question to myself).
Don't confuse busy with productive. Busy-ness can be addictive - ticking off your to-do list, without ever really getting to the needle-moving stuff. Sound familiar?
When you’re calm, you think clearly. And when you think clearly, you can make better, bolder decisions.
How often are you giving yourself thinking and planning time?
hashtagThinkDifferentlyDoDifferently
Do you believe that you have to work hard to earn money?
That you have to work hard to succeed?
Many of us do.
It’s a deep cultural belief that’s often passed down through the generations. The idea that you will be rewarded for being a ‘good worker’. That your job will be safe, and you will progress up the ranks.
In many, many cases, it’s no longer true.
❌ How many people do you know who have worked hard all their lives for very little reward or pleasure?
❌People who’ve been laid off despite their efforts?
❌People who have been overlooked for a promotion, even though they are diligent at their job?
❌ Business owners who work endless hours but still struggle to make headway, or pay the bills
I know plenty, including me in the past.
The work paradigm has shifted - Could it be that the HARDER you work, the LESS you earn?
Many of us do.
It’s a deep cultural belief that’s often passed down through the generations. The idea that you will be rewarded for being a ‘good worker’. That your job will be safe, and you will progress up the ranks.
In many, many cases, it’s no longer true.
❌ How many people do you know who have worked hard all their lives for very little reward or pleasure?
❌People who’ve been laid off despite their efforts?
❌People who have been overlooked for a promotion, even though they are diligent at their job?
❌ Business owners who work endless hours but still struggle to make headway, or pay the bills
I know plenty, including me in the past.
The work paradigm has shifted - Could it be that the HARDER you work, the LESS you earn?
As Daniel Priestley says:
💭“Hard work is not a competitive advantage any more. If anything, it’s the opposite.
Competitive advantage is thinking expansively, connecting with the right people and resources, and spotting fresh opportunities.”💭
💭“Hard work is not a competitive advantage any more. If anything, it’s the opposite.
Competitive advantage is thinking expansively, connecting with the right people and resources, and spotting fresh opportunities.”💭
It’s about making time to THINK, RECHARGE and CONNECT with your vision, resources, and people:
✅ Prioritising time to pause and think strategically. To climb the tree in the jungle and look ahead.
✅ Embracing and harnessing emerging tech, AI, new ways of working, simplified, integrated systems.
✅ Seeking new connections, synergies and leverage in people, ideas, finance, tech and resources.
✅ It’s exploring and experimenting.
✅ It’s you and your team continually seeking incremental improvements (marginal gains) AND radical shifts, as a core and integral part of your ‘doing’ .
When you believe work should be ‘hard’, you are at risk of wanting/making it hard so you feel ‘successful’.
How often do you say “yes, I’m really busy” as a measure and validation of perceived success?
It’s a trap
Instead, seek for work to be EASY
To be flowing smoothly. Enabled by great systems, tech, people, and ways of both working and being.
When you are in a flow state, it’s amazing how much gets done, and how energised you can feel.
❓What can you do today to start to make work easy?
❓How much time is in your diary, and your team’s, for non-busy work?
❓Is it time for a rethink about that outdated, unhelpful belief?
✅ Prioritising time to pause and think strategically. To climb the tree in the jungle and look ahead.
✅ Embracing and harnessing emerging tech, AI, new ways of working, simplified, integrated systems.
✅ Seeking new connections, synergies and leverage in people, ideas, finance, tech and resources.
✅ It’s exploring and experimenting.
✅ It’s you and your team continually seeking incremental improvements (marginal gains) AND radical shifts, as a core and integral part of your ‘doing’ .
When you believe work should be ‘hard’, you are at risk of wanting/making it hard so you feel ‘successful’.
How often do you say “yes, I’m really busy” as a measure and validation of perceived success?
It’s a trap
Instead, seek for work to be EASY
To be flowing smoothly. Enabled by great systems, tech, people, and ways of both working and being.
When you are in a flow state, it’s amazing how much gets done, and how energised you can feel.
❓What can you do today to start to make work easy?
❓How much time is in your diary, and your team’s, for non-busy work?
❓Is it time for a rethink about that outdated, unhelpful belief?
