The abundance of choice is both the blessing and the curse of the self-employed life. When we are employees, we dream of being the masters of our own time; when we are answerable to no one but ourselves, we realise how hard that really is.

As the great Jim Rohn said, what is easy to do is also easy not to do. When you don’t have a boss or an instructor setting deadlines and other parameters for you, you have to make your own choices.

You can choose to get out of bed and get to work – or you can choose to lie around in your pyjamas all day and binge on Netflix or video games.

You can choose to make the connections you are afraid to make – or you can choose to lose yourself for hours scrolling on FaceBook and Instagram.

The time will pass whether you choose to use it wisely or not. An absolutely terrifying post on the blog Wait But Why really puts the time that we have into perspective. Many have regrets at the end of their lives, and rarely for the things they did – mostly for the things they did not choose to do.

If you have set goals for yourself, you can visualise all you want, but until you have chosen to get into action, you have no hope of achieving those goals.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m a huge fan of vision boards (Jack Canfield has a great free vision board app), and I write down my goals on a regular basis. But no amount of imagination or manifesting or putting things out into the Universe is going to get me anywhere unless I’m willing to make the hard choices – to get out there and talk to people, make the connections and serve my customers.

In the words of the inimitable Hunter S. Thompson,

Call upon G-d, but row away from the rocks.

I can’t think of a more succinct expression of the importance of choosing to act, rather than to let time go by.

What will you choose?