I believe that most of us have read the words below in one way or another; either you have read it through an email from your friends or you may have read from somewhere else. However, how many of us have actually stopped, really thought and taken a moment to reflect on what were shared in these words. These words were attributed to Erma Bombeck who achieved great popularity for her newspaper column that described suburban home life humorously from the mid-1960s until the late 1990s. Bombeck also published 15 books, most of which became best-sellers.

Lets take a moment to imagine our life is already at its end but we are given another chance to have our life to live over again starting today. How would we live it differently?

If I had my Life to Live Over by Erma Bombeck

If I had my life to live over, I would have talked less and listened more.
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.
I would have eaten the popcorn in the ‘good’ living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.
I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.
I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.

I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.
I would have cried and laughed less while watching television – and more while watching life.
I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren’t there for the day.
I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn’t show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I’d have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.
When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, “Later. Now go get washed up for dinner.”

There would have been more “I love you’s”.. More “I’m sorrys” …

But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute… look at it and really see it … live it…and never give it back.

After I finished the last sentence in the previous paragraph, I went to put out the laundry to dry, took a seep of water from the refrigerator, had a piece of chocolate and took a toilet break before finally sitting down once again to write; I lacked the self-discipline to focus and concentrate on the writing.

Just with most things in life, often time we lack the self-discipline to see us through what we are hoping to do or achieve. One area where self-discipline is clearly important is in losing weight.

Some people are constantly looking for quick fix to their weight problem; they will jump at anything that gives them guaranteed weight lost in the shortest time. They may lose weight fast, but they will find the result short term especially if they do not change the way they live and the food they eat.

To me, I strongly believe that the best way of losing weight naturally is through changing our living habits and what we eat. Doing that will not only ensure keeping the ideal weight permanently (through continuous self-discipline), but will also give us the many health benefits that come with living right and eating right.

A friend’s colleague shared his experience going through the journey from 115 Kilograms to 56 Kilograms in around one year. Not only does he look fresher and younger, he has also inspired his wife and friends to follow in his lifestyle.

His journey of losing weight started from a trip with his daughter to the doctor for her check up. He playfully weighed himself on the weighing machine while his daughter was having the check up. The doctor saw his weight and made a remark, “If you maintain that balloon weight, you cannot see your grandchildren.”

That made him decide, “Enough is enough!” Not only that, he felt tired easily and his excessive weight made him feel like a walking balloon. In that moment of awakening, he made decisions to change his lifestyle and eating habits. To him, this is the one proven way to lose the excessive weight. “Seeing my kiddos help me stay disciplined.” He said.

How did he do it? He first calculated his Body Mass Index (BMI) and set the goal he wanted to achieve. Then he cut down on the amount of food intake as well as changing what he was eating (no junk food, no refined-Carbohydrate, less or no fried food). Eventually he becomes a Pescetarian. The second part is doing lots of Cardio-exercises from badminton to running to squash and just nature trekking sometimes. The trick is to do these Cardio-exercises regularly. He did it thrice a week.

In his own words, “There is only one way: in two parts to lose weight; eat right and exercise. And this is a lifelong thing.”

Another thing which probably contributed to his success in losing the excess weight were the moral supports from family, friends and colleagues. However, without him first deciding to lose the excess weight and then keeping it going through self-discipline, he would not have done it!

This was a quote which I came across yesterday while I was compiling some love quotes by Barbara de Angelis. I knew it instantly that this is one quote which I want to share with you. This quote is in line with the ‘Rewriting Life with Different Choices‘ post, which I did a about two weeks ago.

One of the things which upsets me, is seeing people using their phone (without a hands-free) while they are driving. Now they are even checking their text messages and texting while driving.

Then there are always the inconsiderate few who decide that they prefer to throw trashes on the floor when the bin is less than a feet away.

It really doesn’t make any sense in letting these people upset me. Can we really be in control of our happiness? I believe we can. As the saying goes, “It is not what happened but what we do or how we react to what happened that is most important.” There are people or things in life that are constantly upsetting us … but only if we allow them to.

There is something which I believe we all know; Whenever we let someone or something upset us, we are letting the person or the thing control our happiness. Why should we be allowing others to decide if we should be happy? Since being happy is essential for the well-being of one – be it mentally, physically or spiritually, shouldn’t we be in control of our happiness?

If life is like a book we received at birth as what Dorothy mentioned in her blog, how are we writing each chapter? Our parents had already helped to write the introductions for us and now it is up to us to complete the rest of the chapters in the book.

Is the book going to be one that grabs the readers’ attention and keeps them going from one chapter to another? Or is it going to be one the readers will put down after reading the first chapter and know exactly what they can expect in the following chapters or even the conclusion?

Whatever it is, it is up to us what we want to write in the book. And since we are stuck with the writing, why not make it an exciting one – starting from today! We cannot erase what had already be written, but we sure can start writing the most exciting and colourful story from today.

How our stories will turn out depend on the choices we are making each day. From a past training I went to previously, the trainer was telling us not to look at the current status in our lives and decide that are how we would be in the future. He stated that our current status in life are the reflection of the choices we had made in the past. So if we are unhappy about our current status in life, we have to start making different choices now.

Just as what Albert Einstein said, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If we change our choices, we can hope to create a new future.

Life has always been about making choices. Even if we refuse to make any choice, it is still a choice we made in not making any choice. There are times we may feel that we are not in control of how some situations are turning out and yes we cannot always control what goes on outside. But we do have the power to control what goes on inside us. Tap on that power inside us to make the choice.