本文為與《創業者》雜志的合作內容。原文發表于Entrepreneur.com網站。

如果你有錢，但是內心充滿憤怒和不快樂，這能叫過得好嗎？這種情況每天我都能見到。它源自于一種極度失衡的人生：期望過高，不懂得珍惜當下。

如果對現在所擁有的不懂得感激和珍惜，你就永遠無法得到真正的滿足感。那樣你又怎么能取得人生的平衡？成功又有什么意義？

近40年來，我有幸為各行各業的人提供激勵指導，其中包括了一些世界上最具影響力的人物。我接待過的既有美國總統，也有小企業主。

然而無一例外的是，我發現幾乎每時每刻人們都在做著三種關鍵的決定，而這些決定主宰著他們的人生質量。

如果你作出以下決定時不假思索，你將落得和大多數人一樣的下場：身材走樣、情緒沮喪而且財政吃緊。相反，如果你是有意識地作出這些決定，你就能在當下改變自己的生活軌跡。

決定1：謹慎選擇關注的焦點。

生活中隨時會有千百萬個事物爭奪你的注意力。你既可以著眼于當前發生的事情，又可以將焦點放在未來的計劃上，還可以關注過去。

隨著焦點的變化，人的精力隨之而動。你所關注的焦點和行為模式塑造了你的整個人生。

對于生命中擁有的和失去的，你更關注于哪一個？

你的答案肯定是兩者皆有。但是，審視一下自己的慣性思維，你的時間主要花在了哪一方面？

或許，你不應該一門心思想著自己并未擁有的東西，嫉妒那些比自己富有的人。而是應該承認，自己擁有不少值得感激的事物，其中有些與金錢無關。你可以慶幸自己擁有健康、家庭、朋友、機遇和頭腦。

養成珍惜自己已經擁有的一切，這一習慣可以將幸福感和精神充實帶到一個新的高度。但是真正的問題是：對于自己的頭腦、身體、情感和心靈，你是否真的努力去感恩？這些才是快樂、幸福和成就感的源泉。

還有第二種影響人生質量的關注模式：你更關注自己能夠控制的東西，還是那些不能控制的方面？

如果你著重的是自己無法控制的事物，生活中就要承受更多的壓力。你可以影響自己生活的諸多方面，但是通常無法控制它們。

當你決定采用這種關注模式，你的大腦就需要作出另外一個決定：

There’s nothing worse than a rich person who’s chronically angry or unhappy. There’s really no excuse for it, yet I see this phenomenon every day. It results from an extremely unbalanced life, one with too much expectation and not enough appreciation for what’s there.

Without gratitude and appreciation for what you already have, you’ll never know true fulfillment. But how do you cultivate balance in life? What’s the point of achievement if your life has no balance?

For nearly four decades, I’ve had the privilege of coaching people from every walk of life, including some of the most powerful men and women on the planet. I’ve worked with presidents of the United States as well as owners of small businesses.

Across the board, I’ve found that virtually every moment people make three key decisions that dictate the quality of their lives.

If you make these decisions unconsciously, you’ll end up like majority of people who tend to be out of shape physically, exhausted emotionally and often financially stressed. But if you make these decisions consciously, you can literally change the course of your life today.

Decision 1: Carefully choose what to focus on.

At every moment, millions of things compete for your attention. You can focus on things that are happening right here and now or on what you want to create in the future. Or you can focus on the past.

Where focus goes, energy flows. What you focus on and your pattern for doing so shapes your entire life.

Which area do you tend to focus on more: what you have or what’s missing from your life?

I’m sure you think about both sides of this coin. But if you examine your habitual thoughts, what do you tend to spend most of your time dwelling on?

Rather than focusing on what you don’t have and begrudging those who are better off than you financially, perhaps you should acknowledge that you have much to be grateful for and some of it has nothing to do with money. You can be grateful for your health, family, friends, opportunities and mind.

Developing a habit of appreciating what you have can create a new level of emotional well-being and wealth. But the real question is, do you take time to deeply feel grateful with your mind, body, heart and soul? That’s where the joy, happiness and fulfillment can be found.

Consider a second pattern of focus that affects the quality of your life: Do you tend to focus more on what you can control or what you can’t?

If you focus on what you can’t control, you’ll have more stress in life. You can influence many aspects of your life but you usually can’t control them.

When you adopt this pattern of focus, your brain has to make another decision: