You have a decision to make- what will it be?

Every day we’re faced with decisions. Decisions ranging from what you’re going to eat for breakfast to which route you’re going to take home from work. Every day we’re faced with the decision of how we’re going to show up in this world. Decisions on how you’re going to react to any given situation; are you going to be angry, happy, sad? That is your decision.

This week, I had a decision to make.

My husband is out of town today and tomorrow and I have early morning clients. I had to decide how I was going to organize our mornings. Would I ask my mother in law for help with getting my son to school? Would I rearrange my schedule so that I could take him to school? Would I cancel my sessions so I could just be home in the morning to help get him ready?

All of these decisions have their own set of consequences.

My mother in law isn’t feeling fantastic and has been sleeping in, so I feel like I might be inconveniencing her (feel being the key word here, I know that she probably wouldn’t mind).

If I rearrange my schedule that’ll mean potentially inconveniencing my client. On top of that it means that I’ll be racing back and forth from work to home. This also means that my son is solely responsible for getting himself ready, because we’ll need to leave almost right away.

If I cancel my sessions, then I’m not serving my clients.

I went with option #2. My clients were totally fine with coming in half an hour early.

I took time the night before to plan out my morning; what time I was going to get up, what I was going to have for breakfast, all that jazz. Wrote my son a to-do list (he knows his routine, but enjoys ticking things off), set an alarm to remind him when he needed to start getting ready, and went to bed.

So, I woke up in the morning, exhausted after another night of tossing and turning. I actually hit snooze, which I usually avoid at all costs, and had to use my motivation skills to get out of my comfy bed. I didn’t want to do my morning yoga because I was incredibly stiff, I didn’t want to journal because I felt like it took a lot of effort, I just didn’t want to this morning.

I did it anyways, because I know that I am a better person when I take care of myself first thing. I’ve also learned that if I don’t want to do something, it usually means that I should do it.

I got myself ready and out the door, early for once. Trained my client, had a great session, had enough time to make my smoothie, and headed home on schedule. I got home to my son packing up his lunch, fully ready to go. We actually had time to just chill before heading out the door for school! Dropped him off and made my way back to work.

As I was driving back to work, I had a thought. I realized that if this situation had happened a couple months ago, I would have been frustrated and overwhelmed. I would have complained that I needed to do all this racing around, woe is me. I would have felt like no one is helping me and I’m all alone in this situation. Woe is me, boo hoo.

Can you relate?

Instead, I decided to experience gratitude. Gratitude for being able to have the flexibility in my business that allows me to rearrange my schedule, so that I can show up as a coach and as a mom. Gratitude that my son is mature enough to get himself ready without supervision (he didn’t even see his checklist until I got home, he had already done everything on it). Gratitude that I was able to have a few extra minutes with him in the morning. Gratitude for living 10 minutes away from my work. Gratitude for having a blender at the gym to make my smoothie. Gratitude for taking the time to prep a smoothie to have on my drive home.

Gratitude for making a decision and showing up for that decision.

Look back, I had 3 choices to choose from. The world wasn’t working against me because my normal routine was thrown off and this situation would have gone completely different if I had showed up in frustration or anger. Instead, I took control of the situation and showed up in gratitude for the decision that I made.

And damn, does it ever feel good.

My challenge to you this week is to make a decision to show up as your best self, regardless of what life throws at you. You can’t control what happens around you or to you, you can only control your attitude and effort.

How are you going to show up?

Love,