You have every right

I have a question, why do people request for receipts when they use the ATM only to toss it in the bin as soon as they receive it?

Now I have no issues if you use it but it is often interesting watching as people – collect and instantly squeeze the receipt.

So the request pops up, “would you want a receipt for this transaction?” and by default, they click “YES”

This illustration is indicative of how a number of us are, in certain areas of our lives and in a world that is governed by the effective use of time and resources, it is not everything that SEEMS right that you say YES to.

This doesn’t necessarily mean skepticism of things that to you only ‘seem’ right or being over judgmental of wrong things; it only means that we need to understand why we do what we do.

Critical scrutiny would reveal that most times, these scenarios are just scenarios when we give subconscious responses to situations that in fact ask for our attention. Think before you talk isn’t limited to speech. We also need to think before act; especially before we press the ‘green button’.

From time to time, we ought to question our decisions and ask, what PURPOSE does this THOUGHT, THING, ACTIVITY or PERSON play in my life? Of what BENEFIT are they to my:

1) Physical life

2) Fun & Recreation

3) Financial

4) Spiritual

5) Social/Societal

6) Emotional or

7) Professional life

If that thought, thing, activity or person contributes nothing or contributes negatively and even depletes you, you have the express permission to CTRL+DELETE.

This life appraisal from time to time is important because we all have various things we do by default. No conscious thought is committed to that pattern of behaviour and I dare say we have unconscious competence doing that thing. Let me give you one – checking your phone every 5mins…LOL…even when there is nothing on it calling your attention.

Most times life asks us questions just like the ATM and we can either auto(sleep)respond without giving much thought to either the question (most times, situation) or our response. We also can carefully dissect the question, weigh up different answers, check out the situation from a third person point of view, and flip over various response options, before deciding and choosing the best one.

It is our lives. We own it, but we have just one copy each of it. Hence, we need to understand that every decision we make concerning who we choose to press the YES button for, or the things we auto respond either positively or negatively to carries either or both long-term and short-term effects.

It is a very risky habit to unconsciously give way to some situations, making it look as if we don’t have them under our control, when we very much know that we do. The decisions we make dictates the actions we take, and these actions are very much the determining factors of the results we get.

So, we can’t go despising the results we get, when we aren’t consciously taking charge of our responses to the various questions life asks us in the course of every blessed day.

My charge to you this beautiful day is simple, take out 15mins (not too much to ask for), do a mental review of your normal daily routine and question why you say YES to certain thoughts, activities, things or people.

If it serves no purpose or consistently depletes you…#delete

We will all give an account of our lives (sorry…time). You might as well start now.

Cheers.

Bankole Williams

Williams is a Master Practitioner of NLP, a UK Certified Life Coach and a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) from the International Council for Managing Consulting Institutes (ICMCI)