Do you like your current circumstances? Ask yourself how you got there? Would you like to change your circumstances? Ask yourself how you got there? Why am I telling you to ask yourself this question? As Tony Robbins says, “The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the quality of the questions you ask yourself.”

If you are in a place you love, understanding how you got there will help you stay where you are, or go further.  If you want more out of life, then the knowledge of how you got there will help you make different decisions in the future to get where you want to be.

Last week we talked about how the choices you make will make you. Sometimes your actions cause things to happen that lead you in a specific direction.  Sometimes life throws things in your way that you didn’t cause, but your reaction causes events that happen.

Here’s how I look at it:

Since your choices are the cause of your circumstances you can cause your circumstances to be different in the future.

Andy Andrews is a best-selling author, speaker, comedian and family man who is described by the New York Times as a “Modern-day Will Rogers who has quietly become one of the most influential people in America.” Ok, here is that question – How did he get there?

His story can be found on his website andyandrews.com:

“Andrews lived a relatively normal life until the age of 19, when both his parents died — his mother from cancer, his father in an automobile accident. ‘I took a bad situation and made it much worse,’ Andrews says with a rueful smile, referring to choices he made during this tragic period of his life. Within a span of several years, the young man found himself literally homeless…”

It was then that Andrews asked that quality question that Tony Robbins spoke of, that ultimately changed his life: “Is life just a lottery ticket, or are there choices one can make to direct his future?”  Studying the life of historical leaders, like Harry Truman who said “The buck stops here,” he found the inspiration that he needed to turn his life around.

In his book The Traveler’s Gift Andrews writes:

“The buck stops here. I accept responsibility for my past. I am responsible for my success. I am where I am today—mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and financially—because of decisions I have made. My decisions have always been governed by my thinking. Therefore, I am where I am today—mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and financially—because of how I think. Today I will begin the process of changing where I am—mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and financially—by changing the way I think.”

Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”