We all make choices.  Some so big they take weeks, or longer, for us to decide, some so small we make them without even realising. 

Every choice has a price.  Some choices are felt straight away, some won’t show up for a while.  But each one will be paid eventually.  Think Marley and that chain in my most favourite of books – A Christmas Carol.

The choices that are the most expensive are the little choices we make every day.  A perfect example of this is when it comes to food.  If you’re wanting to eat healthily to manage an illness or to lose weight, one little piece of birthday cake today won’t have too much effect on the long-term result.  Unless you allow it to be the thing that gives you permission to do it again tomorrow. But, if you do have another piece tomorrow, or a biscuit, or a packet of crisps, etc, and again the next day, then that adds up to a lot.

Be aware of your choices

Your daily habits, even the small ones, matter.  Too many people don’t put enough value and importance on them.  There was a great advert by IKEA, the hare and the tortoise, that sums it up perfectly. Although, to be fair, I tend to wake like the hare on race day even if I make the tortoise choices…

Pay more attention, because the small daily habits and actions add up.  They either move the needle towards your desired end result, or they put you in the red.  

Learn the mistakes you make regularly

What happens for you to say “f*** it” and reach for the biscuits, the pizza, or the wine? Who or what are your excuses?  It’s the tiny ones we have to watch for.  The ones that seem completely innocuous, but the ones that we invariably beat ourselves up over.

What is more important to you?  The biscuit, or fitting into your favourite jeans?  The glass(es) of wine, or feeling great the next day to play with your kids? 

Don’t expect them to always be obvious either.

Choose how can you rise above and let them go

Ask yourself – is this worth what I’ll feel later, or tomorrow?   It’s not just money that has a return on investment (ROI) to be considered.  What’s the ROI on what you are choosing right now?

To get what we want in life we often have to sacrifice.  For me, it’s about giving up the Dr Pepper (11 years at the time of writing) and the Cadbury buttons, along with all the stuff with artificial sugars, if I want to have any level of energy to haul myself out of bed in the morning. What do you need to give up?

And if you do mess up, work out why, and then let it go.  Learn from it so you don’t get caught in the regret of it. It’s not worth keeping yourself up at night.

It’s not always going to be easy, but you are worth it, and you get to choose.

Wanting a guilt-free festive season this year?  Sign up here for my quick and easy wins over five days designed to get you feeling confident that you’ll have a good time no matter what happens, starting on 14 December.