Every day we are making choices that affect the course of our entire lives.  I'm not telling you this to make you overly self-conscious about your decisions ("what does it mean for my future if I have oatmeal this morning?!?"), but instead to make a point: YOU have control over what happens in your life.  You have the power to create the life that you desire.  A choice that you make today could be the seed that grows into the life that you're currently dreaming about.  In this article, I'm going to show you how the smallest decision you make today will inevitably lead to living the life of your dreams.

Have you ever thought back over the chain of cause-and-effect in your own life?  I'm talking about noting where you currently are in your life, and then asking the questions "what decision did I just make to get me here, and why did I make that decision?" - asking those questions over and over again until you get back to the moment that feels like the definitive moment, the birth of your action.  You have to stop somewhere, of course, or else you can keep right on going back into the past, ad infinitum (which is also a fun exercise, of course, but it's not where I'm headed with this train of thought). 

For instance, you may have read about my wedding in my first article on the "Best Days of Your Life" (which also talked about the Law of Attraction).  If you did, then you know how happily married I am (well, you at least know what a happy occasion my wedding was - and I am happily married).  One day I followed the chain of cause and effect back from "being with Toni" - all the way back to where I realized that if my mother hadn't been a pianist and encouraged me to play music when I was 4 years old, Toni and I might never have met.  Pretty wild!  Clearly there's no way to know exactly what the fruits of your "decisions" (or the decisions made for you) are - the best guidance that you can have is probably your intuition at any given decision-making moment.

However, one thing is for certain: The choices that you make grow, and grow, and GROW.  Perhaps you know about compound interest and the way that it can work for you financially - just put $50/month in an investment account every month of your life at 8% interest, and by the time you're 65 years old you'll have well over a million dollars (only $39,000 is money you contributed - the rest is accumulated INTEREST).  That's our plan for Dashiell, anyway (and he'll be psyched when he retires, we hope).

Well, the decisions in life that you make work the same way.  You make a small decision, any tiny decision.  According to the Law of Attraction, your decision will attract things to you that are "vibrating at a similar frequency" - those things out there in the universe that are in alignment with your decision.  That's like the universe paying you compound interest on the choices that you make.  As the Law of Attraction works for you, you will be able to make more and more decisions that reinforce that first, simple choice you made, and so on, until you have arrived at (and moved beyond) your goal.

This process works for WHATEVER you choose.  So take a moment to assess where you are right now.  Are you happy with what you're doing?  Are you following your dreams?  Because where you are is the product of choices that you have made, and the compound interest of the universe, the Law of Attraction, working to reinforce your choices.  Think back - what's the most recent choice that you made in order to arrive at this point?  And before that?  And before that?  See how the world has lined up in response to what you've been asking for?  Hopefully this will inspire some confidence in you - for all you have to do is recognize that you have to ask for what you WANT, what you really truly want, and it'll come your way.

So if you're following your dreams - good for you!  If you're following your dreams and still not happy with where you are - we'll be covering that topic in later posts (for instance, are you saying "yes" to the opportunities that the Law of Attraction is bringing your way?).  If you're not pursuing your dreams - why not?  I'm here to tell you that there are simple steps you can take, small decisions you can make that will send you on your way to living the life that you love.  You can take a step on the most basic of levels, and the universe will respond in kind.  Eventually your "interest" will accrue, and you'll be right where you want to be.

As I said before, this process works for whatever you choose.  If your choices aren't motivated by your own passion and dreams, then the interest probably won't be quite as high.  It'll still accrue, of course - but maybe at more like 3 or 4 percent, rather than 8, 9, or 10 percent.  It's like swimming in a river - even if you're fighting the current, you're still going to end up further downstream than where you were when you started (unless it's one slow-moving river, and life ain't that slow).  If you're just treading water you end up downstream - the current will carry you further than when you were fighting it (and how many of us are just "treading water" in our lives?).  If you swim WITH the current, however...well, you get the picture.  Your passion and dreams give you one helluva boost, especially because as you make choices in alignment with your highest aspirations the Law of Attraction will add more energy to your passion and dreams.  As a result of living in alignment with your higher purpose, you'll be happier and have even more energy to contribute to the journey.

Here's a silly (but true) example:  awhile ago I was working in a niche of the technology world that really didn't fit who I was - setting up phone switches and software for telecommunications companies.  Essentially I was installing the machinery that allowed telemarketers to reach YOU.  I was in San Diego, on a business trip, when I decided to stop at a local club to check out some live music.  During a break in the action (it was a swing band, and the joint was a-jumpin') I sat down with a group of strangers, and when they asked what I did for a living I told them that I was a dog trainer.  A natural dog trainer.  I decided to try that identity on for size (at the time it was VERY far from the truth), and it felt pretty good - much more in alignment with who I was.  We had fun talking about dogs, and I shared what little I knew about canines with my fellow swing dancers before the band struck up again, and we danced the rest of the night away.

The next day there was an e-mail waiting for me in my inbox from Kevin Behan (the creator of Natural Dog Training) saying that he would, in fact, be happy to take me on as an apprentice, and he proposed a course of training that totally fit my budget and my learning style.  Was it coincidence?  Or was the universe sending me a message that it supported the "choice" I made the night before?  All I know is that here I am, years later, an official "dog trainer" who has improved the lives of many a dog (and person).  And dog training is merely a component of what I do with my life.  Knowing that the universe responds to the dreams I have, knowing that all I have to do is make the best choice I can make in the here and now, I feel inspired to keep dreaming and paying attention to the opportunities that life sends my way.

What's your wildest dream?  What simple step could you take, tomorrow, to show the universe that you actually want your dream to manifest?  Take it!  Let the Law of Attraction work its magic, and have some faith in the compound interest of your life.  It's accruing as we speak.