Every day we wake up with one fundamental choice. We can either be the best we can be or not. Being the best we can be involves doing the best we can, speaking the best we can, learning the best we can, taking care of ourselves the best we can and getting on with others the best we can.

This month I wanna talk about this choice. You see, most people I get to work with and, in fact, most people I know don't live the best that they can. I didn't either and still sometimes I don't. The difference is that I do much more than I ever did and I continue to do better each day. I made a choice a while back to live out more of my potential because I wasn't satisfied with the way things were going in my life before.

When you begin to be the best you can, you find your life immeasurably improving. It's not that tough times don't come along, it's that you deal with them much better. I often ask people what would they be able to do if they were at their best, absolutely and the most common reply I hear is 'ANYTHING'. Now, the way I think about it, being at your best is simply a frame of mind, a state that you can create by thinking in the most useful way.

So, when you are at your best you can then be your best. Your best doesn't involve doing everything perfectly. In fact sometimes it's about making mistakes. The best way to learn is to practise and make lots of mistakes so that you can learn and get better. If you are too busy trying not to make mistakes then you lose out on practise and your confidence takes a knock. Then, you certainly don't perform anywhere close to your best.

So, how do you live the best you can. You welcome two old friends called Courage and Discipline. Courage involves you having the strength to go after your dreams. Discipline involves taking action consistently to achieve your dreams. With courage and discipline, it's possible to be all that you can be. Without them, it's impossible.

Often these days, 'dreamers' are looked down on. The notion of idealism is seen as something which is naive. Yet dreams are the common dominator behind all great achievements. So many people back away from them and stay in what the modern self help world describes as a 'comfort zone'. These zones trap so many people into existing rather than really living. They provide a path of survival rather than enlightenment. They offer security rather than experience. They stagnate growth and meanwhile dreams die inside of us.

So, being your best involves dreaming again. It is about dreaming about the possibilities of the future. Once you dream then you design a plan and then you follow the plan through courage and discipline. You let yourself dream by taking off the chains which hold you back.

The chains involve the fear and doubt, the insecurity and neediness. They involve our concern for other peoples perception of us, the fear of disappointment and failure, the worries about regret. The thing is though that by avoiding the dream we allow these fears and doubts to keep us trapped and because we do we learn to dislike ourselves a little every day.

If you have ever settled and are unhappy because of it, it simply means that isn't for you. Some people can settle and some people cannot. If you cannot, you must go after your dream. Otherwise a part of you will always feel dead. Of course, what will hold you back will hold you back unless you have the courage to go after it.

You become courageous by realising that courage already exists as part of who your truly are, deep down. It exists in your character, your potential. One day you will go asleep and never wake up. You will die and you will leave this world. At that stage, only three things will matter. How you impacted the world, how you affected other people and how well you lived each moment. Every breath you breathe must be a signal to you to start living as well as you can. Why must we always wait for a traumatic, tragic or dramatic event to move us before we become enlightened about the world?

This realisation around the inevitability of change and death will truely offer you a new way to think about courage. All courage becomes simply the state of mind which allows you to do something scary because it is the right thing to do. When you remember that one day will be your last, you can discover how making every moment count must be the most important thing. Then you can never again waste any of this precious time.

Every decision you make, make it because it is the right thing or wrong thing for you... not based on worries or fears about getting it wrong. Many people believe in destiny and fate. I do too... but I believe that we shape our destiny. I also believe that no decision is a wrong decision when you make it to better yourself. Regardless of what happens you can deal with it, you can cope, you can survive... but most importantly you will GROW.

Every time you risk going for what you truly know is the best decision for you living the best life you can live... you grow... immeasurably. You can never fail when you truly go for your dreams... because you have already won... by being courageous enough to stand up and say to the world... I will be the best I can be, I will risk to truly live.

Look, it's simple. Tomorrow, I could die. I could have my life ended unexpectedly. If I did, I would leave behind many people who would grieve for me. The worst part would not be my passing. The worst part would be if I was not being the best I could be... would be if I was wasting my potential. I know deep down I am not because I remind myself every day that I must live as well as I can.

Failing, Rejection and Embarrasement are all friends of the best achievers for they realise that rejection is about the rejecter, failure is only an educational experience which brings you closer to success and embarrasement is the opportunity to grow past caring what everyone else thinks.

Most of us dream for the perfect job, the perfect partner, the perfect family, the perfect car, house, friends and holidays. The sad thing is that in our perfectionism we either settle or we do the opposite and hold out not realising that everything is flawed. The secret is to dream to live the kind of life where you do what you like to do regardless of the failure, rejection, embarrasement you face along the way.

Then, you use discipline. You carry out the actions that will bring you closer to your dreams... and you do so EVERY SINGLE DAY. Regardless of how you feel or what you think. You force yourself to take action every single day. You make it a necessary part of every day you live. That way, your actions will always provide results. That way... you will be really living as well as you can.

So, living a life you are supposed to live means doing your best by dreaming and finding your courage and discipline to live out those dreams. It means finding a wonderful person that you connect with so closely, a job that you enjoy very much, and a life which makes you feel like you are doing the best you can.