A Split Second Move Away from Disaster
Smarter split-seconds
In the movie The Mustang, Roman (Matthias Schoenaerts) is a man who is in prison because he assaulted his wife. When asked how long between the thought and the action, he said “a split second.”
Just think of that! In a split second, in less than a blink of an eye — in a moment of a uncontrolled rage — a heinous crime was committed. A woman was beaten. Battered. Brutalized. And afterwards, their daughter was forced to take care of her invalid mother until her mother died from her wounds.
Mammoth Miscalculations
Thus, it’s those momentary decisions that often have the biggest, and sometimes the most disastrous, effect on our lives.
For in a fraction of a second, a decision can become what Tony Robbins, in Darren Hardy’s book The Compound Effect, calls a “mammoth miscalculation.” He explains that “every choice shapes how you live today, but more important, how you live the rest of your life.”
Simply because our decisions become the fabric upon which we weave our future. Because we emboss that fabric with either lead or gold, depending on whether our attitude is one of embitterment, or is magnanimous, in that one split second of emotion-driven decision.
As a writer who is striving to make a living writing, I have experienced many split-second decisions. And far too many of them have led to loss instead of luck. Especially the loss of living my dreams.
For I never realized how fast time was passing. Because I was too busy bemoaning the idea about how hard it was to become successful. Until …
How to Be S.M.A.R.T.
One day I realized I had little to show for the decades I had been writing … for I had only been writing sporadically, in the odd moments between bouts of self-pity and self-delusion. Between moments of self-deception and unintentional split seconds immersed in illusions that resulted in the waste of those precious moments.
For my goals seemed to be too hard to attain. So I quit dreaming …and quit working. Quit writing.
But recently, I have become S.M.A.R.T. enough to realize that I must Switch Mindsets by Actively Reversing my Thinking.
And, in fact, put my fingers on the keyboard and pull my thoughts out of my head and onto the screen. Therefore, lately I have made a habit of making better split-second decisions. I have intentionally chosen to write.
And it seems to be working. For I have created more articles this past few months than I ever have in any year since I started writing.
Alert and Sassy
Which proves the saying, “Hard work is good for something besides relieving Jacks boredom.”
As well as what’s good for the mother goose. For this goose is striving for more golden opportunities and options to share my experiences in some of medium’s publications. So, I must have learned something about writing, in spite of myself.
And it’s all due to those split-second choices I’m making. And will determinedly continue to make.
For I’ve realized that instead of getting glassy eyed about a grueling life of adversity and those split seconds of yesterday … life can become a classy, content life of abundance of split-second yields. For, as any farmer’s daughter should know, your fields yield luscious fruits when you tend your crops in all those odd and varied split seconds called life.
But, you have to remain alert and sassy, and be smart at activating those split second yearnings for success.
Filling Your Dossier
And you know what even turns out to be classier? It’s the creative’s life filled with one split second imaginings that effectively reverse any bad expectations that often appear out of nowhere. And actually create bad situations.
For even a fraction of a second of positivity leads to a better attitude all-around. Which leads to better results.
And that only happens when your dossier is filled with decisive. outstanding split-second investments of effort that lead you to imagine your intended results. For it’s like purposely taking a walk in the middle of the afternoon when the weather is perfect, and you feel the wonder and excitement of being alive. You hope it never ends …
and you do everything in your power to make sure it doesn’t.
Including working with diligence and determination to ‘make it happen’ by being more aware of what you’re doing.
For as Hardy says in his book, the first step you take toward the life you desire is always awareness. Hardy says, “you have to start by becoming aware of the choices that lead you away from your desired destination. Become very conscious of every choice you make today so you can begin to make smarter choices moving forward.”
Magical Connections
Thus, instead of being tossed about on life’s gusting winds where even the best are often shaken and thrown into split second energy-expending detours …
Your life becomes a crisscross of connections that are relevant and rewarding outcomes from even those split seconds that weren’t expected, weren’t anticipated. For as Earl Nightingale said, “A great attitude [the result of a great mindset] … seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before we changed.”
For the magic is initiated in those moments of active and genuine intentional choices.
In short, the magic is a result of those BOSS moments when belief occupies those split seconds. For in those brief odd split seconds, miracles happen.
The Miracles of Magic
According to Hardy, ““the magic is not in the complexity of the task; the magic is in the doing of simple things repeatedly and long enough to ignite the miracle of the compound effect.”
That is the miracle of all miracles.
For the miracle happens when desire is stirred inside of you … the desire to simply fill those split seconds of your life with thoughts, feelings and actions that grow ever-so-slowly, but steadily and persistently, into hopes fulfilled and dreams realized.
So, are you ready to change your life in a split second?
You can if you make the most important decision of your life.
If you intentionally choose to fill as many split seconds as possible with miracle-making steps. Steps that lead you toward the dream you’ve envisioned.
For it may be a dream now. But in a split second, you could just become destiny’s golden daughter or son who’s living your dream.