That inner voice is talking to us all the time. It’s our SELF, talking to us. Most of this inner talk is NEGATIVE, preventing us from enjoying life and creating our goals.

This negative self-talk comes from bad programming that we took to heart from childhood right through to adulthood. Word by word, year by year, our life scripts were formed. Self-images were etched into our brains.

We came to believe what we were being told by others, parents, teachers, friends, and what we were telling ourselves.

Repeatedly, the same words were told to us, what we could do, what we should do, and what we could not do. This wrong programming became a WALL which stood between us and our future. This programming became our FOE without us realizing it.

The negative conditioning we received for years has to be erased or replaced with different programming or it will stay with us for the rest of our lives.

So, what do we need to replace the bad conditioning? We need two things, positive self-talk and the desire to make good life choices.

We need positive SELF-TALK. A word for word set of directions, to repeat to our subconscious. This will be your new conditioning.

I will give you some examples of positive SELF-TALK which will be your FRIEND.

When you read these examples, SAVOUR the feeling you get.

Self-Talk:

“I am control of my mind.”

“I am living my life in a way which creates my strengths, my happiness, and my positive thoughts.”

“I am positive and confident. I like who I am and I’m glad to be me.”

“I begin each day with a plan to get the most from my time and effort. I follow my plan and I reach my goals.”

I’m sure you can come up with many more uplifting statements for yourself. Remember, when you state it, you create it! We make choices everyday and those choices create our success or failure in life, our happiness or misery.

Your good choices create powerful self-directed programs. Good choices can override past negative conditioning.

Each time you make a choice, you define what you want, what you hope for, what you believe about yourself, and what you believe about others around you.

Life Choice statements:

“I choose to give myself the time to do the things I want to do and to give myself the space to create.”

“I choose NOT to accept bad vibes from others and NOT to care how they feel about my response to their criticisms.”

There are two BIG choices to make:

Choices of Attitude and Choices of Action.

These two kinds of choices work together.

Choices of attitude have to do with how you feel about something.

How you look at things.

Lets create a scenario and ask some questions:

A colleague at work is always criticizing the way you go about doing your job.

How do you feel about this? Angry, you say.

How do I choose to feel about this? I shouldn’t let him get under my skin.

How do I feel now? I feel indifferent and I will ignore him.

So, you changed from anger to ignoring. You’ve changed your attitude.

Choices of action tell us what we will do about our change of attitude. In the above example you could go to the boss about your annoying colleague.

Now, how about the big choices that set our direction in life.

Love is a choice. You say: “ I choose to love and to be loved.”

This is the desire to make a relationship work. But of course, this is a two way street. It depends on the other person too, do they have the same desire?

To make love work, you have to admire and respect who the other person is.

Success is a choice. Start believing in what you can do, and stop believing in what you can’t do. The present doesn’t wait for the future!

Stand in front of your mirror and repeat: “I am successful. I deserve to be successful. I choose to be successful.” This would start your believing it in your subconscious and then it would work into your conscious.

Happiness is a choice. Some people live with unhappiness, the color has disappeared from their life. They don’t have the energy, or enthusiasm for living each day.

But, they can change, because happiness is an attitude and your attitudes are always up to you!

So, get in front of that mirror again and say: “I choose to be happy today.” Keep

repeating that at different times during the day. You will change your attitude to happiness.

A new day, a new life, and new things to learn!

We control everything. We decide what we do, where we go, how we react, and especially, what we focus on.

It’s your life. Do what you want to do!

Here’s a couple of departing thoughts on Choice:

When you need to make a choice and don’t make it, that in itself is a choice.

When life throws a knife at you, there are two ways of catching it, by the blade or by the handle.

In the title of this article, I am talking about the FEELING of shortness or length when one thinks about his or her life. Between birth and death there is a span of life and it rushes by swiftly. Life is short, is the retort.

But, did you ever think why it feels so short? Maybe, it’s because we WASTE so much of it. You can make your life feel longer if you spend your time achieving constructive goals instead of frittering it away in hedonistic activities.

If we waste life, then the constraint of death makes us wonder where life has gone. Many people pursue no fixed goals, they are tossed about on a stormy sea and then death takes them when they least expect it.

So, most people live only a SMALL part of their life and all the rest is merely passing time. Sad, isn’t it?

So the feeling of a long life is all in how you USE it, life, that is.

Many live life as if they are going to live forever. Their mortality never occurs to them. They squander life as if they had a never ending supply.

Some people are weary of the present and troubled by a longing for the future. Before they know what has happened, their hair is white and wrinkles appear. They have NOT lived long, they have just existed for a long time.

People are always expecting something or waiting for something. This life of expectancy denies them TODAY by promising TOMORROW!

The present is extremely valuable and short, most people are unaware of this.

The present is always moving, flowing on in a rush.

So, if you are preoccupied with frivolous distractions, you will fail to grasp the present. But if you use it in productive endeavors, it will seem longer. So don’t neglect the present or fear the future.

How can we come to grips with using our life in an authentic manner? A manner in which you are free and responsible for making your own choices.

Yesterday is a memory and tomorrow never comes. TODAY is what we have to deal with. So, how is that done?

Sartre, my favorite philosopher, said: “Existence precedes essence”, which means that each person exists first, without meaning or purpose, but then strives, for the rest of their life, to give themselves meaning and purpose. You are continually inventing yourself, making choices and living authentically, hopefully.

Here’s a conflicting thought: For life to feel longer, you must fact up to your inevitable death. Because when you face up to the inescapable truths of the human condition, you make sure you live fully in your present, while you can.

And when you live fully in your TODAY, your life feels like it is long.

Abe Lincoln once said: “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the LIFE in your years.”

As you now have probably figured out, I am an EXISTENTIALIST. I try to seize the day. CARPE DIEM.

I try to be true to myself and compassionate to others. I have my opinions but the OTHER, an existential term for “person”, they look at me and see me and they have opinions about me, which could or could not stroke my ego. I respect that.

I will end with: Life is like a bank. You can’t take OUT what you haven’t put IN!

Family Guy is an animated comedy about a dysfunctional family, the Griffins, and it spoofs current events and social taboo subjects, much like the Simpsons.

While watching several episodes, to get a few laughs, I was intrigued by the pet dog, Brian. Now Brian fancies himself a person because he has human characteristics. He walks on his hind legs and he talks. He is articulate, witty and urbane and he strives for person status.

Watching Brian’s antics, I started thinking about Personhood. It’s defined as the state of being an individual or having human characteristics and feelings.

Can Brian, the dog, be a person?

Reasoning tells us in order to be a person, one must be human. So, Brian lacks this necessary condition of personhood: humanity.

Another condition is you must think rationally. Brian is rational and he is a thinking being able to reason. Even Kant would agree that being a person does NOT include membership in a particular species, but must only be in possession of reason. So, you could call Brian a person that demands respect!

Now, our Brian is a cartoon, but it does lead us to the question of how to distinguish persons from pets.

Persons are the entity that has the moral right to make its own life choices, and to live its life without interference from others (self-determination). We don’t give animals the same kind of autonomy that we accord persons. We sell dogs and cats. Pets are property.

To be a person you need a modicum of intellect, and self-awareness and consciousness. I do have intelligence and I am self-aware.

Hold on! What does it mean to be self-aware?

It means you are aware of your existence and actions. You are conscious of your own self and ego.

You also need consciousness to be a person.

Hey! What’s that all about?

Well, to have consciousness requires “subjective experiences.” Which means you must possess an inner, mental life. You can put yourself in other situations through your imagination.

So, we are different from animals in that we try to understand where we came from. We look into our past and try to predict our future, and what other species thinks about their death?

So, we are a unique species.

Hooray! I am a unique person.

I conclude with:

No two people are alike—and both of them are glad of it!