The life that you lead is exactly that, your life to lead.  By your actions, thoughts, and choices, you define exactly who you are and you control where you are going.  To choose is one of the most empowering things that we do as individuals daily.  It is what drives elite athletes, business people, and leaders to new heights.  It is what can do the same for you.  Choosing allows you to take control.  And, choice has the effect of directing where you are going, quite literally.  

So, two more ingredients for a prosperous life are:

Having a prosperous life involves making choices.  Here are some of the best choices that you can make regularly. 

Choose the way you want your life to turn out.  Plan where you want to go.  Choose to take responsibility for your actions and your response to the actions of others.  Be empowered with the act of choosing.  Choose to make fun daily.  Don't wait for it to come to you.  Choose to be lucky.  Your luck is waiting to be noticed.  Choose to attack each day and be in control of your life.

One more powerful thing that you can do is to give yourself the right to make a new decision down the road.  Choose what is right for you right now and if something happens and you need to make a change in your decision, that's okay.

A world of scarcity is an unhappy world.  Consider the people you know who trust no one and who hoard as much as possible.  Are they not the unhappy ones and generally they lack wealth of any kind - financial, health, contentment or happiness.  They have preprogrammed their world to be unhappy.

Now consider those around you who seem to live in a world of abundance.  They are happy, content, healthy and live comfortably.  Surprisingly they are also the most generous.  They give to their church and charities, but most importantly, they give to others even when they may not have much to give.  They believe that if you give to the world, it will give back... multifold.

The reality of your world is that you are probably a little bit of both of these types of people.  The key is choosing to live in the world of abundance not only more frequently but daily. 

Psychologists, including Maslow, have talked about being "deficiency motivated".  In a nutshell, this means that you believe that you are lacking something and thus are trying to go out and improve yourself.  This may motivate you to change and succeed to some degree but the reality is that it is not a healthy way of living.  Instead, start from a point where you believe that you are complete today. You do not have a need for more material things. You do not need to be a better person. You are a complete whole human being right now.

With this point of view, you will still need to grow and enrich your life.  But, you won't be constantly reaching for that elusive dream.  You will be an evolving human.

If you believe that the world is abundant, then you have succeeded at the first step.  The next step is just to practice and practice and practice, choosing your universe and choosing to be complete every day.  Take time to reflect on your world and how you have all that you need and how you are all that you need to be.

Every day, be critical in the way that you think. You may believe you are abundant, but you may not be in all cases and it may even be hard to notice when you are choosing a world of scarcity.

Also, it is important to realize how you affect others with your outward character. If you are positive or negative, you will affect those around you in that way. If you are neutral and those around you are negative, you will be allowing them to create a world of scarcity around you.  I am sure that you would rather be a positive influence on others. 

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Everyone can benefit from what elite athletes do to succeed.  One of the things that all of these athletes do is visualization.  Visualization, which can also be called guided imagery, is used in athletics, but can be used in business and in your personal lives.

Why is visualization important?  It allows you to practice the execution of a skill.  It also allows the practice to be in a safe, inexpensive, and controlled environment - your mind.  It allows you to practice for events that may not be easily simulated.  The correct mindset is created as you "see" the possibility that you will be a winner or successful.  It allows you to be more prepared for the stress involved with trying something for the first time since it doesn't seem so new.  Visualization also helps to create more focus both during practice and the event itself.  And, finally, it allows you to be more relaxed before, during, and after the event because your mind understands that you are prepared.

Probably one of the most important features of visualization is that it allows you to perform under pressure.  Performing under pressure is something that everyone needs to do at work, at home and at play.  Being able to perform under pressure is a critical factor in being able to win at whatever you are doing.  Performing well under these circumstances is a rewarding experience.

Visualization is also important in getting you into a "groove".  Think back to when you had a positive experience similar to the event that you want to go well.  Think back to when everything felt right, when you felt like you were in a "groove".  Being in a "groove" is what elite athletes are searching for.  When you are in your "groove", you are not only performing at your best but you are also enjoying the experience.  You are on top of the world.  We have all experienced this feeling from time to time but the key is to stay in your "groove" as much as possible in all aspects of life.

So, three more ingredients for a prosperous life are:

Visualization is practicing or previewing a positive experience.  To start, you need to find an environment that will not distract you from your visualization.  Then, in your mind, you go through the experience that you are preparing for. For a marathon runner, they may start with how they are going to get to the event and then prepare for the event.  This will be followed by how they get set at the start line and then what they are going to do for each of the 26 plus miles.  And, finally, they will visualize how they cross the finish line.  So, what is it that the athlete is visualizing.  Visualization is actually more than just the visual.  The athlete will pretend how each stage of the race feels, looks, smells, sounds and arguably tastes.  It is important to visualize the event as you would like it to happen.  And, you need to visualize in your head how you are going to react to potential problems and what those problems might be.

Be very careful not to start visualizing negativity and letting your worries play out in your head.  It can be easy to let these thoughts become dominant.  Don't!  Remember you are trying to reinforce the positive outcome and to displace the negative outcome.

Visualization can easily be translated to our businesses and our personal lives.  When you are meeting with an individual who may be a potential client, you can plan the outcome in your head.  When you have a goal you want to achieve, you can visualize the process of getting there.  When you have to confront a family member about a problem, you can visualize how you want the interaction to happen.

If we think about instances when we were most upset or in despair, you will probably find a common factor - control over our life. We either felt like there was little or no controlling force directing our life or that control of our life was directed by someone or something else.

One goal then to having a more happy and successful life is to direct the control of your life inward. You must start to take control of your life in all situations.  This philosophy ends up giving you less stress, and more self esteem.

Some people feel that to be successful in life they must give up control in certain circumstances.  Consider being a little less "successful" and a lot more in control.  The reality is that you will likely find that you will be more in control and more successful!

If you were totally unafraid of anyone or anything, what would you do differently? Think about this statement. For example, if you feel that you can't do something that you want to do because you will look stupid, you are influenced by what other people think of you. You are letting a portion of your life be controlled by someone other than yourself. 

Pay attention to this in your day-to-day life and you will be surprised with what you notice. 

Please also understand that this does not mean that you don't or shouldn't do what people tell you to do. Everyone receives direction from others. But, what you do is to take this instruction in, acknowledge it, assess it, then take it on as your own and perform the task. You will perform better and be given more autonomy, which will give you even more control.

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Many things define who you are but some of the most important are your passions. 

So, the question is how do you find out what your passions are?  One important thing to think about when determining your passions is to make sure that they are truly yours and not imposed upon you.  For example, you may be given feedback about yourself from others that you used to define yourself.  In this case, it is quite possible that these points represent other people's interest more than yours. 

Consider a passion as something that brings you alive, something that energizes you, something that without realizing it you gravitate toward, something you may find yourself obsesses over.  Notice that these are NOT skills or talents.  A passion for something also does not necessarily mean that you are an expert in that area or know a lot of technical detail.  But, it is something that you may naturally learn a fair bit about over time.   

Be honest with yourself. 

When you are creating your list of passions, you will be able to make it a more true list if you practise "The Art of Asking Why?"  This technique will allow you to determine whether or not what you listed is actually a primary passion for you or just a secondary interest.

To do this you need to take a passion that you have and ask yourself, "Why do I do this?" or "Why do I like this?"  For example, if you have a passion for reading, why do you read?  What makes you need to read?  Is it to escape from the reality of the world?  Is it to learn more about different cultures?  Is it to gain knowledge?  Is it to be entertained?  When you get the answer to that initial set of questions, do the process over again and continue to ask Why?  Do this until you cannot find any further answers to the question Why? 

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As we go through life, we are given many things - rewards, challenges, responsibilities, decisions, support from others and obstacles.  With all of these inputs into our lives, we often find ourselves either wanting to fix everything or complaining about what we have to endure.  Or, we focus solely on the next "thing" that we want or the next goal in our lives. No matter what the situation, we often find ourselves wasting or overlooking the one thing that we can never get back... time.   

We need to be present in the moment – enjoying what we have been given, not fixated on the future or the past.  Take action now.  Make decisions that need to be made as opposed to "stewing" over them.  Give yourself the right to change your mind later.  We need to evaluate what is truly precious in our lives, and one of those things is our time. 

So, a couple of ingredients to a great life are: 

So, go ahead - have friends over, play and talk with your kids, call your parents, stop what you are doing when someone comes into your office and listen.  However you choose to share your time, you will end up rewarding the person you least expect to - YOURSELF. 

Decide what you are going to do in the next week to cherish the time that you have.  Set up a time and then Do It!  Then, do it every week and then every day. 

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