To Maximize, First Choose, Then Decide.

What’s the difference?

“Choose your future and then decide what part of the past gets to come along so you can maximize the present.”

People often use the words “choose” and “decide” interchangeably, but this leads to confused thinking, because they actually mean very different things. Choosing is always related to the future. It comes from inside, from your imagination. You create a possibility out of your passion to experience a bigger and better future, usually in terms of having greater freedom with your time, money, relationships, and purpose.

Deciding, on the other hand, is based on the past. Once you’ve chosen the particular future you want, defined it, described it, and written it down, it throws a light on your past, and in that light you can immediately see which parts of of your past don’t qualify for your future and decide which parts would be useful there.

By stopping to choose the future you want, then deciding what from the past gets to come along, you vastly simplify what you have to think about in the present—and have the confidence of knowing exactly what you need to do now in order to get where you want to go.

For more on this approach to envisioning and achieving your bigger future, see the full Huffington Post article by Dan Sullivan.