Every second we are overstimulated with choices. If you wake up to an alarm, do you hit snooze or hop out of bed excited to start your day? What are you going to wear, eat, do, think, act, say, and how will you spend each and every one of your spare moments?

Although we have the freedom to make these choices, many of us feel like prisoners trapped in our own lives. We tell ourselves stories like “I have to wake up at this time to make it to work, in order to get my paycheck that I need to pay these bills…” You get the picture.

One thing that many people don’t understand is that just because you feel stuck, doesn’t mean you are.

You have the freedom to make different choices and you may just be caught up in a series of decisions that you make routinely.

You see, every choice we make takes willpower, and because willpower is finite, the choices we make can be hard. For example, if you are not in the habit of working out and you decide you want to start exercising, every time you choose to go to the gym it uses up some of your willpower. However, once exercising becomes a habit it’s not a choice anymore. It’s just something you do without thinking about it. Therefore, saving your willpower for other more difficult decisions.

If you could create a life where all of your difficult choices just became habits, imagine all the extra willpower you’d have to do amazing things! Things you didn’t have time to dream up because you were too busy focusing on doing all of the things you “have” to do.

The reality of it is, if you strip away your stories, excuses, and the lies you tell yourself, you really don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, and it's possible to do all the things you want and love to do. Sometimes it just takes a little extra creativity and strategy.

If you feel like you’re sprinting hurdles on a hamster wheel that just might disassemble itself before you reach the finish line...(oh wait...is there a finish line?) it’s because of a series of choices you've made that led you where you are right now. Just remember you do have a choice, and it only takes one choice to make a change.