The Here and Now Decision You Make

You can shout loudly for attention if you want to, or you can speak quietly and have people lean in to listen because you are a person of character who produces results.

You can push people to take action, or you can inspire them to act on their volition. You never have to push people if you start with the intention of serving them.

You can pitch the value of your company, your solutions, and your experience, or you can work to understand how to help someone get what they really want or need. It takes longer, but moves things along faster for both of you.

You can believe that you deserve things that you don’t already have, or you can become the kind of person who is capable of producing the results you want. You will have what you want only when you become the person who could achieve those results, whatever they are, and however you measure them.

You can fall for every “get rich quick” or “8-minute abs” program that promises you the lie you want to believe, or you can do the lonely, quiet work that produce those very results. One of these is certain failure, the other is certain success.

You can work on improving your efficiency under the banner of “working smarter,” or you can work on improving your effectiveness so you can slow down and do the impeccable work of which you are capable. Faster is not better; better is better.