Choice vs. Decision Who’s Really Driving Your Life?”

0:00Ladies and gentlemen, welcome beyond the truck podcast, Jerry Curle. Coming at you today, returning from Mid-America Trucks Show. We want to say thank you. Thank you for all you who supported to us. Thank you for all that believe in us and we continue to believe in you and it was great to see the love and dedication we put into the trucks industry, ourselves, and I want to continue to keep showing up for you to pour into yourself. It was a great time, a great time to spend with you, but also it was great to get re-rooted and understanding that, you know, there is a definite need of healthcare in this industry. And thank you for believing in us and in these show notes, I want to make sure I remind you that a link to our link tree will be in there for all of our platforms moving forward. As you can see, we're getting more visible on the social media side as they've been telling

1:01me, I've always pushed against it because I hate the negativity. But they're like, Jerry, you got the positive, you don't like it, change it, get out there or somebody else is going to continue to do it. That's why we're doing it. I'll get you to it. We're going to be on YouTube, getting on YouTube, going to start going on YouTube live, doing some of the things. But I need supporters. I need to get 50 of you, I need to get 100 of you, a couple hundred, but you know what, I got a goal this week. I want to see if I can get 25 news subscribers to YouTube. You know what that means? You've got to share, you've got to help, you've got to help me do that lifting. I'm doing my part right now, bringing it to you. I want to see, are you really listening? Do you really buy in? Because today that's what this is about. Choice and decision. It's your choice to help yourself, help me, what do you decide? You know, who's really driving your life? You or somebody else? I often say, you know, the battle starts right out of the box in the morning when the alarm goes off and we grab that phone to turn the alarm off. Are you going to sit there and snooze?

2:04That first decision of your day or first choice of your day defines your life because it defines your day. So I want to use this episode to recalibrate that ECM, the internal operating system that we spoke about down there. You know what I mean? People think, people think these two words are the same. This is an option. Decision is your commitment. Commitment. Commitment and consistency is what will drive your life. I want to remind you that. Commitment will drive your life. Choice is an option. I'll stay in my warm sheets and my comforter because it feels good here. Or I'm committed to doing something better. I'll decide to make this a better day than yesterday. So we're going to draw off on the, I looked it up, I'm not afraid to say that, I got some notes from it because I want to make sure I understand these words and I probably won't

3:04even get them right. We're going to go back to the meaning, the Greek meaning of these two words because, you know, as professionals, we operate in precision every day, don't we? Being control speed management, route planning, do you decide your route? You choose your route. Do you decide your lane or was your lane the choice? We can live in neutral or we can put it in gear and get moving. Every, every single decision will transform your life. Trust me, I want, I want to use this episode of set a new standard. Stop browsing life, start committing to life, committing to it, doing it. Are you really doing it? I want to know, your habits don't come from what you choose occasionally.

4:06Your habits are built in what you decide repeatedly and then become your habits that form your identity. So let's define the gap, choice versus decision. The Greek word, hey row, hey row. I might not be right, but I'm damn close. I guarantee you, hey row means to take, to select, prefer. This indicates option, doesn't it? You prefer choose, select, throw a dart at it. There's no required commitment to this action, is there? No. You know, you can, a choice would be passive. Yeah, let's look at that way. It keeps the door open so when you want to fall back to your comfort zone and carve back in your warm sheets and go there, it allows you to delay your life. I can eat better.

5:10I could start walking. I should sleep more. I should drink more water. I should take better care of myself. That choice is a mindset. No traction. No commitment, no movement. Yeah, maybe I'll start tomorrow. Tomorrow's where dreams go to die, right? Creno, decision, Creno, Creno, to judge, to determine, to resolve, that implies commitment, finality, final. Requires action, requires direction, just like you're choosing your GPS, that GPS has million coordinates, but you choose the one to get you where you need to be.

6:14Every destination starts with a journey. Every destination is a journey. Every destination has a beginning. Yes. A decision closes the door, creates movement. I'll eat better starting today, right now. I'll walk 20 minutes after my shift, not negotiable. I'll shut down screens and sleep with discipline. That's a decision mindset, clear commitment, commitment to operating at a high standard. Yes. You know, when I talk to you about steering and drifting out of your lane, you know, in the cab, you don't choose to stay in your lane, do you? No. You decide. A 65 mile hour, a delayed decision would be a safety risk, right? Yeah. It could be an accident. It could be life threatening. A lack of commitment creates drift, right? You drift out of your lane, you hit the guardrail.

7:16That drift leads to some sort of consequences that take away, don't they? It takes away. Your life operates the same way. It takes away. When you don't commit to something, it takes away. When you live in choice mode, you turn it off. You drift. It's easy, isn't it? Yeah. Poor nutrition, fatigue, isolation, you on a healthy habits, become your identity. Decision made you serious, you're right? No. You take ownership. Ownership. Not for it, isn't it? You create discipline. You establish the direction of your life. Your life goes where you decide, where you plan, where you point it. You decide the direction. You chose the coordinates. That's your compound effect of these decisions. You elevate your standard. You elevate your conversation. You will elevate your life. Yes.

8:16Habits are not built for motivation. Habits are built for repetition. Repeating the same decision is your habits. Every day you choose your habits. You decide your habits. They're a brick in your foundation. What do I always tell you? Emotion becomes beliefs, beliefs, thoughts become words, words become actions, actions become habits, habits form your identity. Decisions become actions. Decisions become actions. Decisions become repetition. Repetition becomes habits. Habits form your identity. Same thing. You are the architect of your own transformation. In this industry, the reality check is what? The long hours, the limited food access, the high stress, isolation, they ask me this weekend. So how do you suggest we eat healthy? Set yourself up for success.

9:17Pack your own food. Don't go there. Create your own environment. These environments don't reward good choices. They require what? Strong decisions. Decisions. Because without decisions, convenience wins. Convenience. Staying in bed underneath the warm covers by the world gets going. And you lay there in the world passing you by. Comfort wins. There's nothing good that happens in your comfort zone. Make your lazy boy chair. You go there to get nothing done. You go there to stop doing everything. That's where the old programming wins, right? Well, that's where it does. You decide what words come out of your mouth, go in your ears to write that new script on your ECM, on your emotional control module. You download, delete it. If you stay in choice mode, your ECM will run on default mode every single day. I'll start tomorrow. I don't have time.

10:18That's just the industry, just how it is. That's BS and you know it. It's laziness. Step up when you step up in your decision made, you're stepping into decision mode. You override the system, you write the programming, you're you're you're rewriting the code, you're the new standard. However you want to say it, you don't rise to your intentions. You fall to your decisions. You don't rise to your intentions, you fall to your decisions. What do I often tell you? You'll fall to your education. You'll fall to your standards, won't you? Yes, you will. I know you will. It's human nature. So you need to build that framework and execute it immediately, fuel the body, physical. I talked about that physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. Decide the water before the caffeine, get out and move for 10 or 20 minutes. If you haven't moved at all, move for two minutes, just add a minute a week.

11:20Any year's time you're exercising for an hour, mental, focus, start to day without all that digital BS, connect with yourself. There's something magical about the moment by yourself. You're up before the world gets moving, it's dark out, you get to know you. If you don't like reading, get an audio book, write in a journal, set yourself up today, write your map out for today. What will I do today? What today will I do better today than yesterday? You train today so tomorrow you can do what you cannot do today. Remember that. You train for today so tomorrow you can do what you can't do today. And when you think you know everything, you're going to start falling behind. Control inputs before the world controls you. You control the traffic in your mind. And then emotional, stabilize that system.

12:24That's a magic in the moment. You respond, you don't react. You pause under pressure. You pause under the pressure. You breathe. Yeah, you breathe. Remember that. All you thought I was crazy. Then you start doing it and next you know, it works. I'm not smoking mirrors, people. I've done figured this out. I lived it. I'm telling you, I lived it. I know. And you got the spiritual anchor, the purpose. Well, there we go. The spiritual side and then you might say, I don't believe. I bet you believe in something. You better figure out what that is because you know, it's gratitude daily that will determine your altitude in life. Your attitude of gratitude will determine your altitude.

13:24You show me anybody that's married in negativity that soars at the highest level. Yeah. You won't soar with the eagle scratching with the turkeys, will you? No. Reconnect with that purpose beyond the truck. Yourself, your family, that's dependent on you because you're rewriting the code for your family. Your decisions are the bricks and their foundation as well because you're the fortress for the future, the future generations that you'll never meet. Whoever decisions you make impacts your family, your legacy influences future generations. Think about that often. They will thank you for being strong enough to change their outcome because you're the architect of the future. Yeah, it's just you. You're not driving freight, you're driving the standard.

14:27You're driving the standard higher and it has built one decision at a time. I know you didn't choose to listen to this podcast. You decided to because it will elevate you. I want you to share this because I want you to decide to be the personal, the person. I want you to decide to be the person, the professional that you are that I see in you. And I want you to remember this. Stop negotiating with yourself. There's no negotiation. You don't need more choices. You need stronger decisions. Yeah, you don't need more choices. You need stronger decisions. A choice keeps you from where you want to be, keeps you where you are.

15:28That decision will project you forward. The decision is your future. That's today's standard. What do you want? We don't try to live better. We decide to live better. We don't try. Just like I said, trying versus training. Trying is an attempt. Training is doing today into ourselves. So when tomorrow shows up, we can do tomorrow what we can't do today. That's training, not trying. I'm not attempting to live a healthy life. I'm training to live a healthy life. That's my decision. And I decided to do this for you. So your call to action will be locking on one decision. Write it down in your journal. Put it in your notes. Write an audio note. One habit, one standard, one non-negotiable,

16:30and start executing it today. Then I want you to execute it tomorrow. Then decisions become repeatable. They become repetition. Then they become your habits. And that's what drives your life forward. We love and appreciate you. I'm Jerry Curl. I have put in the show notes, the link to our link tree. Please watch us on all the platforms. And please help us grow our YouTube channel. We love you. We appreciate you. If you want to find any single one of us from our team, email us at thriveatbeyondtheTruck.com. Find us on the web at thriveatbeyondtheTruck.com. We're waiting for you. And all of you to sign up at the show, thank you. I can't wait to continue to pour into the videos for you in that platform. Love and appreciate every single one of you. Be great out there. Be safe.