Thoughts from Achieve online magazine

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.

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