Decisions… How to make the best ones?
By: Anne-Elizabeth Cecillon
Tags: Growing Up, Decision Making, Life Lessons, Love, Personal Development

Today, while cooking and enjoying the process, I am thinking about decisions.

We make decisions all the time, some big, some small and they determine every area of our lives.

We make decisions based on love or we make them out of fear…

Fear made decisions are not easy to recognize… they tend to be sneaky! We rarely realize that our childhood programming unconsciously makes us chose to play it small, to avoid risk, loss or hurt. We mask our lack of tolerance to the unknown as practicality and limit ourselves as a result. We mostly are not aware of our brilliance and we do not trust ourselves. We prefer to stay a big fish in a little pond rather than being a little fish with room to grow in the big pond. So how do you convince yourself that you should jump of the ledge if you want to know that you can fly?

You make your decisions out of love. Love made decisions bring us closer to our heart’s desire and are aligned with our purpose. They feed us with energy and enthusiasm and support our growth. They help us develop constantly. They stretch us out of our comfort zone so we can become who we need to be in order to achieve what we really truly want. They help us understand that life does not have to become easier, we just have to get better…

See, when you trust your heart, you are able to make an unusual decision to achieve the extraordinary. You know that in order to get what you want, you become it first. Take me for example. I was an airline pilot with a instructor position when I had to make a decision between my personal life and my career. All of my fears were screaming to not let go of my job, my source of income. I was so afraid I could not make a decision for a couple of months and it was agonizing. Then, one morning, I realized I could not live like this any longer and I chose my personal life and my family. I had the courage to follow my heart and not listen to my mind screaming to hold on to my income and position. I knew that it was important for me to come home after 28 years as an expat and be there for my family in their time of needs. I chose out of love while being deeply afraid…

I am so happy today that I trusted my heart. It lead me to an incredible journey, one that has just started as a matter of fact. Everyday, I am designing my own life plans and I am very careful not to fall into someone else’s plan. I made that mistake too many times before. Although I loved my career as a professional pilot, my life was ruled by crew scheduling. I had very little say in how I organized my personal life. It was all about how many hours I had left to rest before a flight, when could I organize my birthday party around my schedule and “sorry we won’t be celebrating Christmas this year again as I will be on a layover in Singapore”…

Although I did not realize it at the time, it was really taxing. Today, my life could not be more different. I no longer live under somebody else’s plan. I design my life in total freedom and am learning to be completely independent. That does not mean that I no longer work. I do! But on my own terms… I am designing the life of a digital nomad. As long as I have a connection to the internet, I can practice my trade.

As with everything in life, the evolution is not linear. I am learning everyday to trust my instincts more and more. I am aware that it is a long process to be bold and look with a different angle at how I make my decisions. Change does not happen overnight. For a while, it will be a one step forward, two steps back. And it’s OK, I need to allow the change to happen with self love and patience. When I have doubts, I congratulate myself for having the courage to change my direction in life. I am mastering the big challenge of all that I have the possibility of becoming. I am trusting my heart and go boldly where I want to grow. It is not an easy process for sure but it makes me realize that life is not the passing of time but rather a collection of experiences and their intensity. And that from the beginning it was always lived from the inside out and not the other way around.