3 Key Financial Decisions That Can Change Your Life in an Instant
By Tony Robbins

In all the years I’ve worked with people, I’ve found there are three key decisions we make every moment of our lives. If we make these decisions unconsciously, we end up with lives like the majority of people, who tend to be out of shape physically, exhausted emotionally and often bored with or two comfortable in their intimate relationships—not to mention financially stressed.

But if you make these decisions consciously, you can literally change your life in an instant! What are the three decisions that determine the quality of your life? That determine whether you feel rich or poor in any given moment? The first one is:

Decision 1: What Are You Going to Focus On?

In every moment of our lives, there are millions of things we could focus on. We can focus on the things that are happening right here, right now, or on what we want to create in the future, or we can put our focus back on the past. We can direct our focus on solving a big challenge or on appreciating the beauty of this moment, or on feeling sorry for ourselves about a disappointing experience. If we don’t consciously redirect our focus, the environment we’re in tends to make constant demands to get our attention.

Ask yourself: Which do you tend to focus on more—what you have, or what’s missing from your life? I’m sure you think about both sides of this coin, but if you had to look at your habitual thoughts, where do you tend to spend most of your time?

Even those of us who are in difficult situations have plenty in our lives that we can appreciate. Almost half the world, or more than three billion people, live on less than $2.50 per day, which is a little more than $900 per year. The average drink at Starbucks is $3.25. If you can afford that, you’re spending more on one purchase of a cup of coffee than what half the planet has to live on in one day. That puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?

Rather than focusing on what we don’t have and begrudging those who are better off financially, perhaps we should acknowledge that there’s so much to be grateful for in our lives that has nothing to do with money. We can be grateful for our health, our friends, our opportunities, our minds, the fact that we get to drive on roads that we didn’t have to build, read books we didn’t have to take years to write, and tap into the internet that we didn’t have to create.

A pattern of appreciating what you have will create a new level of emotional well-being and wealth. And my guess is that if you’re reading this, you may be one of those people who already notices what you have. But the real question is, do you take time to deeply feel grateful in your mind, body, heart and soul? That’s where the joy and the gifts will be found. Not with just the intellectual appreciation or by the acquisition of another dollar, or another 10 million dollars.

Now, as soon as you begin to focus on something, your brain has to make a second decision, which is:

Decision 2: What Does This Mean?

What does this mean? Ultimately, how we feel about our lives has nothing to do with the events of our lives, or with our financial condition, or what has or has not happened to us. The quality of our lives is controlled by the meaning we give these things. Most of the time we’re unaware of the impact of these quick meaning decisions that are often made in our unconscious mind.

When something happens that disrupts your life—a car accident, a health issue, a lost job—do you tend to think it’s the end or the beginning? If someone confronts you, are they “insulting” you, “coaching” you, or truly “caring” for you? Does this “devastating” problem mean that God is punishing you, or challenging you or is it possible this problem is a gift from God? Your life becomes whatever meaning you give it.

A change in focus and a change in meaning can be an emotional game changer. We can all find meaning, even in our pain. And when we do, we may still experience pain, but the suffering is gone.

So take control, and always remember: meaning equals emotion, and emotion equals life. Choose consciously and wisely. Find the empowering meaning in anything, and wealth in its deepest sense will be yours today.

Decision 3: What Am I Going to Do?

The actions we take are powerfully shaped by the emotional states we’re in. If we’re angry, we’re going to behave quite differently than if we’re feeling playful or outrageous.

But even two people who get in an angry state will behave differently. Some will pull back when they’re angry, others push through. Some people express anger quietly or loudly or violently. Some people suppress it only to look for a passive aggressive opportunity to regain the upper hand, or even exact revenge. Some people confront their anger by going to the gym and working out.

Where do these patterns come from? We tend to model our behavior on the people in our lives whom we respect, enjoy and love. The people who frustrated or angered us? We often reject their approaches, but far too often we find ourselves falling back into the pattern that we witnessed over and over again and were so displeased by in our youth.

It’s very useful to become aware of what your patterns are when you get frustrated or angry or sad or feel lonely—because you can’t change your pattern if you’re not aware of it. In addition, now that you’re aware of the power of these three decisions, you might start looking for role models who are experiencing what you want out of life. I promise you, those who have passionate relationships have a totally different focus and come up with totally different meanings for challenges in the relationship than people who are constantly bickering or fighting. Or those who judge each other constantly. It’s not rocket science. If you become aware of the differences in how people make these three decisions, you’ll have a pathway that can help you create a permanent positive change in any area of your life.

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It’s so easy to lose track of the beauty and grace of what we already have! If we don’t consciously do something each day to plant the right seeds in our mind, then “the weeds of life”—frustration, anger, stress, loneliness—tend to creep in. You don’t have to plant weeds; they grow automatically. My teacher Jim Rohn taught me a simple principle: every day stand guard at the door of your mind, and you alone will decide on what thoughts and beliefs you let into your life. For they will shape whether you feel rich or poor, cursed or blessed.

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/money/Key-Financial-Decisions-Tony-Robbins#ixzz3KsfFGi00

Revolved Triangle melds two different dynamic energies: rooting down into the earth with the legs, and sending energy, or prana, up through the extended arm. The pose is a classic representation of what Patanjali, in the Yoga Sutra, describes as the union of sthira and sukha—effort and ease, hard and soft, expanding and contracting, ascending and descending, and solar and lunar.
Joining opposing forces is a handy skill to cultivate and practice: Life frequently demands finding balance between two conflicting desires—for instance, finding love and maintaining independence, or building a career while being a devoted parent—and engaging both, to ever-changing degrees, simultaneously.
You might think Parivrtta Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle Pose) is all about twisting, but as soon as you reach for the floor, you realize it is also a delicate balancing posture that will feel completely steady and comfortable—if you know how to use your legs and core muscles for support. When alignment is correct, the posture can create strength and flexibility in the hamstrings and establish balance both physically and energetically. It can generate a steadiness of mind and a sense of complete freedom. As you take one hand to the earth (or a block), and reach the other to the sky, you find stability and are able to stand your ground while surrendering to both the present moment and the mystery of tomorrow.

In Revolved Triangle, the spine runs parallel to the floor and the descending arm runs perpendicular. With the front leg, these three lines of the body form a right-angle triangle—a stable, structurally sound shape. This means there is no lateral flexion, or side bending, in this pose. If you are tight in the hamstrings and therefore the hips, and if you’re feeling pressured by your own ego (or even a teacher), you can easily lose your balance and critical extension in your spine as you try to place your bottom hand on the floor and twist open into the full expression of the pose. You’ll end up folding forward from the back instead of the hips, losing core stability and grounding in the legs, and even squeezing the front edges of the vertebral discs that are meant to divide the vertebrae. Repetitive compressed folding and twisting, without a lifted chest and an extended spine, can result in back injuries over time that take months, if not years, to recover from.

To practice the pose safely, you need to be aware of your hamstrings’ flexibility and adjust with props and a modified stance so that too-tight (or too-loose) muscles don’t stop your spine from staying parallel to the floor. Tight hamstrings are common, from running, biking, and sitting at a desk all day, but you could also have the opposite problem: Students with long legs and flexible hamstrings consistently take a stance that is too short for their height, so when they dive down into the pose, their heads hang way below their hips, eliminating all right angles and core stability from Revolved Triangle.