“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.” – Anthony Robbins

In several of my computer classes I teach my students about something called an IF statement. Sometimes referred to as an If-Then-Else statement or function. It is really a pretty simple function to understand. If some condition is met, Then a certain action will take place; otherwise (Else) a different action will occur. I always enjoy watching my students realize how widespread the use of this function. Once they really understand it, they begin to see how powerful it is and how it can be used in so many different situations.

You see this statement or function is really a decision step. It tells the computer to make a decision. That decision tells the computer how to act (or more appropriately react). This simple decision if this is true then to one thing, or else do another thing is amazingly powerful. There is hardly a computer program written that does not utilize this incredibly powerful statement.

My point in sharing this is to prove that Mr. Robins is correct. Decisions are important. Every decision you make changes your life. No matter how small or insignificant a decision might seem, it changes your life.

The important thing to remember is that this is true about every decision. There are no decisions that don’t count. Every decision to cheat on your diet counts – whether you want it to or not!

If you really stop to think about how drastically every decision changes our lives it’s simply amazing. For example, when I was in college I decided to attend a meeting for new students. It was there that I met another new student and we became friends. Seven years later, he was the best man at my wedding. Looking back, I don’t remember anything of the advice I was given about being a new student on campus, but I still think going to that meeting was a very good decision.

Of course there was the time I decided to go to a friend’s party – where I met a young woman. For what its worth, that was a very good decision.