Have you taken a good look at your life lately?

Take a moment now. Is it exactly what you want your ideal life? Is your life dynamic and fulfilled with all the love, all the success, and all that you desire? Or, like so many others, do you feel that your dreams and goals remain elusive and out of reach; or even that they fell by the wayside long ago? Do you find yourself caught in a rut, going in circles, not quite sure how you arrived where you are in your life today?

Wherever 'here' is, the truth is that your current circumstances are the result of the many decisions you make every day, day in and day out. Perhaps most of those decisions seem insignificant or harmless, while a few do feel important or momentous. Yet, ultimately, every decision you make bears consequences in your life. The quality of every decision determines the quality of your life at every moment, and also determines whether or not you create the life of your dreams.

This is the premise of best-selling author and personal transformation expert Debbie Ford's new book The Right Questions: Ten Essential Questions to Guide You to an Extraordinary Life.

Ford asserts that perhaps the most precious gift you have been given is your right to choose for yourself, to determine the course of your own life. “If you can choose, then you can determine which decisions you will make about your body, your health, your relationships, your finances, your career, your social life and your spiritual beliefs. Choice gives you the power to be successful or unfulfilled, to be good or great, to keep moving toward your goals or to veer off course. You are the one who gets to choose whether you will work or play, save or spend, be responsible or be a victim, whether you will keep busy or slow down. Choice gives you the ability to design and create your life however you please. But what's important to realize is that the quality of your life at every moment is determined by the quality of the choices you make.”

Ford explains that you are where you are in your life today based on the decisions you made yesterday, three months ago, three years ago. If you find yourself today somewhere you don't want to be, here's the good news: you can choose from this moment on to begin making new, higher choices that will clearly lead you in the direction of the life you most desire that is the power of your right to choose.

Most of your dreams and goals in the past have derailed because you didn't create a clear vision of what exactly you want in your life and then followed that vision. Following that vision would mean that every decision you make would move you clearly in the direction of fulfilling that goal. Ford suggests consciously creating a vision map, like a visual compass that keeps what you most desire clearly in your awareness, so that you'll have a 'true north' to guide your every decision toward your desired destination. Without that clear vision map in front of you, the decisions you make will be based on what Ford calls your default map: repetitive patterns; habitual behaviors; automatic reactions based out of guilt, obligation, habit, comfort or laziness. Your default map is what keeps you going in circles and sends you careening off in opposite directions, thus preventing you from taking the most direct path toward your goal.

By holding that vision of what you desire in life, you'll have the ability to make conscious decisions that will guide you consistently in the direction of manifesting your dreams. Vital to your ultimate success is asking the right kinds of questions to guide you to make informed decisions; questions that cut through your emotions, your rationalizations, and your excuses; questions that will keep you on track and focused.

The Right Questions are a set of 10 either/or questions designed to guide you to make clear, conscious choices in the direction of your highest good. Examples include: Will this choice add to my life force or will it rob me of my energy? Am I standing in my power or am I trying to please another? Is this an act of faith or is it an act of fear?

These ten Right Questions, asked consciously and often, will improve the quality of all the decisions of your life, and will ultimately empower you to make choices that support the manifestation of what you desire. Ford illustrates each set of questions compellingly, offering thought-provoking examples of situations in which they may be applied. The Right Questions cut to the chase unapologetically there's no wiggle room for how you feel, what you think, your rationalizations or excuses. If your goal is to save money for a new car or pay off your credit cards, and you're considering heading to the mall, you might then ask yourself: Will this choice bring me long-term fulfillment or short-term gratification? Or even perhaps: Is this an act of self-love or self-sabotage? The answers, and thus the decision you'd make, become instantly clear.

Debbie Ford concludes, “Asking these questions will give you the power and inspiration to consciously create… (a life) you feel great about one choice at a time. They will help you to become aware of the important choices and their consequences. They will guide you and support you in making the right choices, and there you will find the most direct route [to your goals and dreams]”.

Use the Right Questions to support you in attaining your personal goals, and watch your reality transform. Your best life awaits you what will you decide?

PAMELA NELSON, Master Integrative Coach™ www.ShadowEmbrace.com