(My sugar skull costume for one of the weekend’s Halloween parties)

There is one phrase that has become clearer and clearer to me in the last year: ‘Life is what you make it.’

It makes sense that this would be the sort of revelation that slowly unfolds, because it is hard to understand all at once how your every decision effects your ultimate lifestyle – and, almost more shockingly, how your ultimate lifestyle is built from your every decision.
This means that every unhappiness, dissatisfaction, frustration, and stress is only in our lives because we make decisions that allow their continual existence.

It also means that all happiness, satisfaction, upgrades, and adventures are also within our grasp, if only we make decisions that allow them to exist for us.

At this time last year, I was quite miserable. I was working at a florist with dysfunctional employees that lied about each other to the boss, and a boss who was indecisive and simultaneously overbearing. I was hired there with the understanding that I would work 10-15 hours a week so that I could also write. I ended up working 35-40 hours every week instead. I was promised a raise that I never got, so I was making very little money.
I was stressed. I was not writing. I hated everything.

I came home and told S that I didn’t want to live like that anymore. He said, “Well then, don’t. Turn in your two weeks notice.”
And I did.
Now, I write more than I’ve written in my life. I have a short story published with a second on the way (‘Dyad’ will be released on Thursday!!), and my full-length novel will be released on Thanksgiving Day. I am much happier. I still make enough money to pay the rent. I am living my dream, doing what I love.

Every choice we make – from the  monotonous to the spontaneous – is an investment into the quality of our living. We either make things worse, make things better, or leave things the same.

What kinds of choices are you making?