Past Kevin is kind of a dummy.

He doesn’t know anything about here and now. He looks at whatever comes up in his present experience, and then attacks it with all the solutions he’s always used. It’s like discovering there’s a screw loose, so you smack it with a hammer—because that’s how you’ve solved similar problems in the past.

Me. Not you. I should say “I smack it with a hammer.” We’re talking about me, here.

But you, too, I’m sure.

Here’s the secret to personal empowerment: Make intentional decisions.

We live the life that results from the decisions we make. Period. Full stop.

Don’t like your car? Decide to get a new one, and then make intentional choices that lead to getting that new car. Does that require making more money? Maybe you choose to look for a new job. Does it mean selling or trading your old, trusty, reliable car? Talk to a dealer. Take out a loan? Fill out the paperwork.

I know, I know… that’s all an oversimplification. Except it isn’t. Because it may sound and seem simple, but it’s apparently so complex that we tend to avoid putting it to work in our lives at all costs. We have a bad habit of wanting new outcomes from the same old decisions. And that just… well… it’s dumb. And it never works.

If you want something different—if you yearn for a different result—you need new inputs. And the only input we have any control over in life is our ability to choose.

And you might bring up the very valid point that just because we choose something doesn’t mean we’ll get that thing, or that it will work out for us, or that we won’t suffer some unforeseen or unintended consequence.

Welcome to existence, my friend. We have cookies.

Because it’s true. Choosing doesn’t magically make things go the way we want. But it does magically give us options.

If you choose, and you act on that choice, and things blow up in you face, choose something else based on the new inputs and data you’ve gathered. Make a new decision, take a new action, try a new direction, and leverage what you learned from the failed choice. Do it again, but different.

Choose the outcome you want, and then choose the paths you’re willing to try for getting to that outcome. And if it all seems lost by the end, or you get to what you thought you wanted and it turns out you really didn’t want that, then choose a new outcome and start again. Persistence takes your farther than insistence. Keep working toward what you really want instead of insisting that what you have is “just reality.”

You don’t have to continue living in the world created by Past You.

And you don’t have to make all your decisions based on what Past You knew, or didn’t know, or tried, or didn’t try. What does Past You know, anyway? They’re the one who got you into this mess.

You. Present You. That’s who has the real power. Be present, and make choices. Live intentionally.

If you like this post, there’s a blog full of this kind of stuff. And Side Notes is basically an extension of my Note at the End, which you’ll find in all of my novels. And you can find those by clicking here. Share this post with your friends, if you found it helpful. And buy my books if you’d like to support me and my work!

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