the align your purpose program step twelve: choice...

The Align Your Purpose Program

STEP TWELVE: CHOICE POINTCREATING INSPIRED AND INFORMED CHOICES

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Copyright © Vladimir Kush

A L IGN YOUR PUR POSE P ROGRAM - S T E P TWE LVE : CHO ICE PO INT

Copyright © 2013 Choice Point with Jaime Mintun - www.choicepointmovement.com

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IN THIS LESSON:

• The Elements of Choice• 8 Steps For Making a Decision

To live is to choose. But tochoose well, you must know whoyou are and what you stand for,where you want to go and whyyou want to get there.

“

”Kofi Annan

Here we are at the pivotal Step 12: The Choice Point.

Most of us have been trained to make our choices based on inappropriate criteria, i.e. we often make

decisions for the wrong reasons – leading us to the very circumstances, results and experiences we were

trying to avoid.

It can be very easy to believe that life just isn’t meant to work out the way we intended, or that something

fundamental is wrong with us, the world, or the ‘cards we were dealt’ in this life.

But the more accurate reality is that there’s nothing wrong with you, your life, the world or anything else...

that cannot be transformed. You just need to use the right tools, and...

The choices you make are those tools.

Change the way you make your choices, and the life created out of your choices will

also shift and transform—for the better.

In this lesson you’ll learn the elements of choice, which are the criteria you want to focus on when making

decisions both large and small. We’ll also include useful steps for harnessing choice points to leap into new

patterns that will deliver you to your preferred destiny.

http://www.choicepointmovement.com

Copyright © Alice Popkorn

Open Your Eyes



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Chances are you’ve been taught decision making

as a form of problem solving. Though we use the

power of choice every day to address and solve

problems, reducing choice to this function alone

keeps us short-sighted, and we end up using a set

of criteria that is not always appropriate for

long-term happiness and success.

Here at Choice Point, we see choices as powerful

actions on a physical and energetic level that direct

your life similar to the way a pilot’s minute shifts

direct his plane. As we mentioned in Lesson 10, you

must zig zag to your destiny just as a pilot must zig

zag his plane in order to reach his destination.

With this expanded view of choice, you can see

that every decision you make can be a minute

course-correction to keep you on the path you’ve

chosen.

Yet your choices can also derail you, leading you to

zag far off course. Or—far more likely—a choice

can keep you from course-correcting at all, and

though you move in a stick-straight line, you arrive

far off course from your destination because outer

forces have buffeted you away from your path

(much like wind, weather and the physics of flight

that will always shift a plane off course until the pilot

course-corrects).

The outer forces we face are the larger patterns

and cycles, such as the economy, the seasons,

planetary and cosmic shifts, and also the social

patterns communities and even individuals are in:

value patterns, religious patterns, emotional

patterns and so forth.

In fact, just consider your most difficult and

confusing decisions over the past year...

How many of them involved the emotional well

being, values or preferences of someone you cared

about or reported to? In other words how many of

those difficult decisions would impact others in ways

that mattered to or concerned you?

Lack of clarity in our decisions is usually a function of

someone else’s energy, emotions and needs

overwhelming our own psyche, preventing us from

seeing what we want clearly.

Basically we fear the consequences of our decisions

on others and who we will become in their eyes

once we make our choice.

So if a choice is far greater than a way to solve

problems, what are the elements of choice we

should keep in mind?

THE E L EMENTS OF CHO ICE

Earth HourAlice Popkorn




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THERE ARE 8 BASIC STEPS FORMAKING A DECISION:

1. Clearly define your goal and the outcome you

want to experience.

When making an important decision (and even

smaller decisions such as what to eat, how to dress

for work, and how you spend your free time), it helps

to look at both your long-term goal for that aspect

of your life and the immediate outcome you want

to experience.

This can be more challenging than it first appears

because we often have an immediate desired

outcome that differs from our long-term goal. For

example we’re all familiar with attempts to get in

shape or to break a bad habit. The long-term goal

is to reach a certain level of fitness/weight for

example, yet the immediate outcome you may

want to experience is the flavor of that delicious

molten lava cake... or just one day away from the

punishing workout regimen you’ve set for yourself.

These single decisions will often set the standard for

our future decisions and hence the cliché regarding

all those New Years’ Resolutions that never last...

What do you do if you find that your immediate

desired outcome competes with your long-term

goal? Find a way to bring the two together so they

support and reinforce each other. For example, to

keep with our fitness/weight loss example, come up

with a positive immediate outcome you can still look

forward to, but that doesn’t compete with your

larger goal. Another way of looking at this is you

want to add things in that you can enjoy now, on

the way to your goal, rather than only take away all

the things you like that derail you from your goal.

For example, I know a woman who got really

excited about reinventing herself and began saving

money to replace her entire wardrobe with new,

updated styles. She also wanted to lose weight so

that she could feel amazing in those new styles.

Rather than get down on herself because of her

weight, she reinforced her desire to get in shape

with a Pinterest Board where she pinned all her

favorite styles. Looking at them motivated her and

kept her on task. She said she emotionally ate up

those pictures just as easily as she would a bag of

potato chips, and so her food cravings vanished.

She was emotionally excited and fulfilled.

I personally think this worked because the focus was

on the styles, not the body shape or size (which can

become negative reinforcement).

Same goes with trying to quit a bad habit. Because

you’re taking something gratifying away in the

immediate moment (an outcome you’ll inevitably

crave as you retrain yourself), come up with a

replacement that equally gratifies you and is also

aligned with your long-term goal.

2. Determine your top 2 needs and primary values

associated with your goal.

Back in Step 6 on Empathy, we discussed the 7

Human Needs and how much you can learn about

yourself or another person based on the 2 top needs

you or someone else has.

When it comes to making choices, you’ll notice that

your top 2 needs can fluctuate depending on the

particular goal or area of life you’re focusing on. So

look at your goal associated with a particular

decision you face. What are the top 2 needs you’re

looking to fulfill with that goal? Are you looking to

feel or express love... or perhaps to experience a

sense of significance and appreciation?

Also look at your primary values associated with that

goal. For example if your goal is to make a certain

amount of money over the next 12 months, what

values are vital to you along that journey?




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A father may highly value family and quality time

alongside his efforts to create a new level of

income. A single young woman may value personal

achievement and growth the highest because she

wants to prove to herself what she’s capable of.

That same young woman may instead most highly

value adventure and the knowledge that she struck

out fearlessly to try something new—success or fail.

Can you see how each of these values will produce

different choices?

I like looking at values when making a decision

because we often get overwhelmed with other

people’s values and opinions about the choices we

should make. We think we have to choose family

over career because our parents or significant other

values family the highest of all. On the other hand,

we may feel we have to work at a job we hate

because we think our family values our paycheck

more than our free time and our duty is to provide.

In nearly all cases, the easiest recipe for disaster and

dissatisfaction in life is to make your decisions based

on what you think others want or need from you, or

based on what you think you’re supposed to value

most based on the other people in your life.

By having crystal clarity about your own needs,

values and the Destiny you want to reach, you

reclaim your power to create your own life and

make your own decisions. And when you do, you’ll

find the people you love are almost always happier

as a result—because you are happier, and hence

you’re able to be the best you for them.

3. Gather information (why we’ve focused on

Understanding Your World).

We’ve covered this extensively so far throughout this

course. Just remember here that you want to revisit

the information during key decisions. Also look for

where there may be assumptions or blank spots in

the information for a particular decision. Then

continue gathering information to address and fill

those in.

4. Develop alternative paths to achieve your goal

(creative brainstorming)

At this stage, write down or think through the various

paths/choices available to you. It helps here to think

outside the box and to stay in a creative and

intuitive space. This is not yet the time to be critical

or to determine why a particular path is a good

idea or not. Just be creative. Consider that anything

is possible at this stage. You’ll allow the Inner Critic

to reign in the next step here, so don’t let him or her

in the room just yet!

(Interesting aside, Walt Disney enforced this rule in

all meetings and creative decisions at his company.

He understood that we cannot be creative AND

critical at the same time. The critical part of our

brain will deactivate the creative part and so we

miss a lot of wonderful ideas, insights, intuitions and

creations we could have otherwise had if we simply

divided the processes into two distinct steps.

So create first, then critique later.

5. Explore and list pros and cons of each alternative

path.

Here’s where you get to let your Inner Critic wreak

havoc on your creative brainstorms. ;) Now revisit

each path or choice available to you (if you think

you only have two options, I encourage you to go

back to step 4. There’s always a 3rd, and often

several other options once you distance yourself

from the immediate problem, emotions and people

in your decision-space.




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6. Make the decision.

The key here is to truly be decisive and to be clear

with yourself. A choice only has the power to lift you

and your life toward the Destiny you desire (by

moving you into a positive pattern that can take

you there) if that choice:

o Addresses your top 1 or 2 needs

o Does not violate your primary values

o Delivers a positive immediate outcome that

is aligned with your larger goal

o Is clearly what is for your highest good and

growth

Additionally, the decisions we tend to regret are

those we make purely for someone else or due to

duty, what is expected of us, what others want or

think is best for us, etc.

7. Immediately take action to implement it.

Most importantly, for a choice to truly empower you

and bring you closer to your Destiny, you must

immediately take action on it and build momentum

with every subsequent choice and action that

reinforces the first one.

We are never perfect, so don’t worry if once in a

while you ‘fall of the wagon.’ Just get back on. All

that takes is the power of choice. And only you hold

that power for yourself.

8. Learn from and reflect on the decision.

Lastly, as we learned in the Step 11, it’s always

important to step back and reflect at key points

along your journey. Once you’ve experienced a

powerful outcome or consequence of a decision—

whether positive or negative—reflect and

determine how your decision and the process you

took to reach it might have led to the outcome or

consequence you experienced. Use that informa-

tion to improve the next decision process you go

through.

Soon it will be second-nature and quick, and you’ll

find that even your big decisions become easy,

immediate and aligned. You’ll also find by doing this

ground work a few times that you get such a clear

compass for what you want and where you’re

headed that you’ll often intuitively know what to do

without even ‘thinking’ about it.

I encourage you to use these 8 steps for your next

big decision. Then that will give you a very clear

directive for all subsequent choices in that area of

your life (or that pertain to that goal).

Re-engage the steps again when you come to a

decision related to a new goal, or when you’ve lost

your direction or clarity on a particular path.

When that happens it’s often just because someone

else’s information has come into your space and

covered up or mixed with your own, which feels

confusing.

You can refer back to our Steps on Empathy and

Intuition for guidance on releasing other people’s

information and energy, and to return to clarity.


www.choicepointmovement.com


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