When your wake-up alarm rings, you're presented with the choice to either get up right away, hit the snooze button to sleep a little longer, or not get out of bed out all. The choice you make could determine how the rest of that day goes.

Yes, I know that last option sounds ridiculous, but I'm sure you get the point. It's still a choice.

When you drive to work, there are multiple routes that could take you there. The route you choose to take could determine what happens on your way and how the workday goes.

At lunch, you have a myriad of choices about what to eat. What food you choose could have immediate or long-term consequences for you and your health.

At work, you have choices about the kinds of attitude you bring to your job. The attitude you choose could impact the quality of your work and thus have implications for your career.

Life is all about choices.

Every day, you and I are presented with a series of options. Most of the time, we're not even aware that our decisions and actions follow from the choices were make. We're not aware because many of our choices are automatic. We don't think them through. We just make them.

In many cases, we don't see the effects of our choices right away. But when you string many of those choices together over several weeks, several months or several years, the consequences of those choices become apparent. This is usually when most people recognize the effects of those individual choices they've made over a long period of time.

By that time however, your choices have become you. The choices you've made have made you - whether that's for good or bad; for better or worse.

So, why don't you resolve starting today, to become intentional about the choices you make. Think through each one before you make it. Don't allow the choice to be automatic just because it's what you've always done.

Extrapolate what the potential consequences would be over a period of future time. This can help you start a new habit. It can also help break an old one.

The great philosopher Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit." Your daily choices can lead you down the path to excellence. They can also lead you to mediocrity.

It behooves you to choose well.