Creating a new life...finding greatness

Some nights I sit at my computer wondering what words I might put together to create my message. Tonight has been one of those nights, with my thoughts scattered across the page. Today I have been thinking a lot about choices that we all make which form the paths our lives take. Eighteen years ago when I moved from California back to Oregon, I made such a decision to change. I was going to "start over."

It is a powerful thing to remake who you are into someone "new." I made a decision that I was going to become the master of my own life, not letting people or circumstance dictate my choices. I had been living in reaction or response to others rather than actually living my life for my future.

We, as humans, have incredible power to create and recreate our lives. Each decision that we make along our journey can affect the rendition of the life we are creating. I think about my decision eighteen years ago and recognize that this decision to change my path, was literally life altering. I am a much different person than I was then, having taken my choice to the fullest, moving in a new direction that has taken me to the place I am now.

Each of us makes decisions every day, decisions that are life altering. It might be as simple as walking down a different street, going to a different coffee shop, or, in my case, going to the indoor soccer center and playing a soccer game where I (literally) ran into a man who is now my husband.

Think about your life and the millions of decisions that you make every day, each and every one of those decisions has the power to change the direction of your life. We cannot remake the world, but we can, and should, continually remake ourselves. We must strive that with each choice we improve our lives, improve ourselves, improve our world. As I sit here tonight, thinking about my choices today and the choices of those I love, I am confident that these choices will make us stronger, better people who will continue to have powerful impacts on those around us.

Remaking ourselves is an incredibly large task that we must continue to embark on daily. If we settle, become complacent with our life, we will not have opportunities to improve on ourselves. The first (and possibly most important) decision of all is to remake yourself...once that has been decided, the world is unabashedly open to you!