Bowling pins have no "choice" but to fall over when hit by a bowling ball. It's the way they were built. It's their destiny...to be knocked down, time and time again. The pins can't choose to "stand their ground" and refuse to fall when struck by the ball. They will never choose a new strategy to move out of the way of the rapidly approaching ball to avoid being knocked over. They will never choose to abandon the "unsafe" environment of the bowling lane and seek a safer environment. Game after game, they will continue to fulfill their destiny; to be knocked down over and over and over again by every ball with which they have contact.

Like a bowling pin which is a product of a manufacturing process that shapes it into its recognizable form, you, too, are a product of a manufacturing process of sorts which has shaped your behavior and actions into a recognizable form. That shaping, or programming, was performed by your parents and other authority figures during your early childhood. They taught you, from their perspective, what was right and wrong, good and bad, appropriate and inappropriate. You may have obediently accepted their directives, rebelliously adopted a behavior opposite to what they taught, or exhibited a behavior somewhere between those two ends of the spectrum. Regardless, you are a product of that upbringing and what you feel, think, and do in the present is strongly influenced by it.

Unlike a bowling pin, however, which has no choice but to carry out its programmed behavior, you have free will. You can make choices about how you act and react to your programming. You can structure your life to strictly adhere to and validate that programming and the scripted behavior it describes, or you can choose to direct your energy to alternative behaviors that better serve you in the present. While your epitaph may eventually be etched in stone, your path in life and your ultimate accomplishments are not. They are products of your own doing. No one has predetermined the path you must follow. You have the freedom to be, to do, to become, and to be known and remembered for whatever you want. The choice is yours. You are not a bowling pin.

posted by Effective Sales Development  # 11:49 AM