You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as bylines are included. Please print article in its entirety unchanged and notify author by email when you use it.THE POWER TO CHOOSE Dr Kem Thompson
I remember day I decided to become extremely successful. It was in my penultimate year in medical school. Up until that time I'd been passing my exams, just sailing along, not putting in much effort and not getting much out as a result. The funny thing (funny wierd, that is, not 'funny - ha ha') was that without realizing it, that same mediocre mindset had permeated other aspects of my life. I felt deeply dissatisfied and wasn't enjoying myself. I was also in habit of blaming others or external circumstances when thing things didn't go my way.
One day I just felt fed up. I realized I didn't want to go on living like this. I knew I was capable of doing better than I was doing. It dawned on me that it was my life in question here - nobody could live it for me. Nobody could achieve results I desired but me. And right then one of results I wanted was to excel in my studies. I wanted to be best medical student that school had come across. I realized it was up to me to make that happen. Not my parents, not my friends, not even my lecturers.
So on that day I 'took my life in my hands' and said in essence, "from this day on I will do what I need to do in order to excel in med. school. I will operate in 'Excel Mode' from now on in every aspect of my life. I'm tired of being mediocre. I will excel. I choose to be extremely successful".
Making a conscious decision to change was enough to get me all fired up. My attitude and actions changed during classes too: I asked more questions, answered more, took more chances to learn things and so on.
To cut a long story short, that day was beginning of my experience of 'The Universal Principles of Success' (see chapter 2 of book: www.daysofsuccess.com/successbk.htm). I coined that phrase after my experience, without knowing that there was a body of knowledge already existing, about same sort of information. Truly, there is one Universal Mind at work. But more on that later.
I passed my finals with distinctions in every subject. I won several awards for being best student in each subject and then won a special award for being overall best graduating medical student for year 1997.
That experience opened my eyes to power we each have to choose which way our life goes. I hope it opens your eyes too. You have so much potential in you right now, mostly lying dormant. You can literally become and do anything you want - you simply need to choose to do so and then go for it.
You've got what it takes to be best in your field, or best you can be. I tell you, there is more than enough room at top for you when you choose to excel.
Even if you are a Stay-at-home-parent, you can choose to make it most fulfilling experience of your life. It's all up to you. Don't let anyone's words or opinions hold you back from making right choices for *you*. It's your life after all.