Have you ever made a decision that affected your entire life? Of course you have. Probably lots of them.

For me, the decision not to go to college has shaped who I am as a person in a very powerful way now. I don’t have a school debt to pay off. I don’t feel like I wasted my time in college learning stuff I’m not using. That was a big decision for mew and one I’m happy I made.

But there have been other smaller decisions that I have made that also affected the course of my life. Little decisions about actions or thoughts that I made, almost without thinking, have molded who I am as a person in much more subtle ways. Like whether I picked up something I saw laying around; whether I made my bed every morning or not; whether I got upset when things didn’t go my way, or sent up a prayer for grace and smiled instead.

I’ve been watching a seminar lately that has been teaching me a lot about the power of the decisions that I make in my life. And it is having an impact on my daily life. I wish I could summarize it for you, but there is so much that I think you really should just go and experience it for yourself.

The best part is, it’s free! That’s right. You can watch the seminar online for free. And the second-best part is that it is short. That is, each day’s session is short, 15 minutes or so, plus 5 minutes in a workbook afterward. Even the busiest person can find 15-20 minutes a day for self-improvement–and if they can’t, something’s wrong!

He’s not exaggerating. So here is my suggestion. Click on this banner and go sign up for the seminar:

When I got to day 12, I was inspired to try something new on my blog. I have been learning about making decisions, and I wrote down 5 decisions that I want to make in my life. Then I thought, What if I could have a link-up here, so that others could share their decisions, and we could support each other and learn from each other? So that’s what I’m going to do.

Every Monday I am going to share with you how the decision I made the week before affected my life, and then share my new decision for the following week. Then I’m going to have a link-up here so that you can post a link to your blog if you blogged about your decision. If you don’t have a blog, you can just post it in a comment. But please don’t start until you get to day 12–even if you take 4 or 5 hours and do each session one after the other–or you won’t understand what is going on.

My decision for this week that I am sharing is a decision regarding my emotional state. You know, we choose our emotional state; no one can force us to be angry or frustrated or anything. So here is my decision for this week:

I am choosing not to be frustrated by my children. Instead, I will model love, understanding, and patience.

Next Monday I will share how this decision affected my week.

Now it’s your turn. What decision are you making this week?