Here’s something you can always count on—something that I think a lot of people forget, causing themselves a lot of stress, suffering, and pain because they overlook this amazing thing that’s always there for them. At any moment, you can conjure it, if you will, and use it to bring yourself into a better state—out of sadness, frustration, hopelessness, anger, and anxiety.

All of us have this quality or ability, and it’s a shame how few actually use it, and use it well. Actually, here’s the thing: everyone is always using it. We’re using it every minute, but we do so habitually and unconsciously most of the time, so we don’t even know it exists.

We forget it’s even there and tend to use it only when things become difficult or when we’re at a major crossroads. The rest of the time, we’re just using it without even thinking about it. It’s like driving a car with cruise control on—you’re cruising down the highway, not even thinking about maintaining your speed. In today’s world, cars even have lane assist, so you barely have to steer; the car practically drives itself.

But that removes you, in a sense, from the driver’s seat. You’re still there, still riding along and seeing the scenery, but the car is driving you. It isn’t until you turn off that autopilot and start steering and controlling the car yourself that you can leave that road and take a different one—a new road.

This is what we do in our human existence. We find roads we’re familiar with and then put ourselves on autopilot. Now, some of this is necessary. In fact, we do it because we’re always trying to conserve energy; the survival of our body requires energy, which we get through food, air, and water. Energy is precious.

In today’s world, we have so much food—if you’re living in a westernized country with a capitalist economy, you’re likely within a short distance of at least one supermarket, and in an urban area, probably within 5 to 10 minutes of three or four supermarkets filled floor to ceiling with every kind of food you can imagine. This kind of abundance is unprecedented in human history.

Our ancestors, going back to the very beginning of life on Earth, saw food as a much more precious and scarce resource than any of us probably ever have. We take it for granted that if we want to eat, we can eat. Even people with low incomes can go to a fast-food restaurant and get a $3 or $5 meal.

This abundance is unprecedented in our evolution, so our bodies are primed to conserve energy, to preserve calories because for thousands of years, we went through periods of starvation, where we might only eat a small amount of food every day—or not eat at all.

Part of this energy conservation is habit, and all the things that go on autopilot in our lives. Thinking takes a lot of energy—the brain consumes more calories and energy than any other organ in our body. It’s a bit paradoxical that one of our key survival mechanisms is to not think, to remove as much conscious participation from life as possible, so we only use conscious thought in very rare circumstances.

The reason I’m telling you this is so you don’t feel like you’re alone. I don’t want you to feel like there’s something wrong with you, or that if your life is a struggle, it’s all your fault. Because here’s the thing: there’s always a choice, and these choices are what slip past us.

We have the opportunity to make a choice literally every second of every day. But the part of us that chooses, in an evolutionary sense, stays in the background, waiting for a situation that may call it forth into some type of decision. That’s what a choice represents—a decision. But otherwise, the default is for it to stay in the background, running on autopilot.

So, you’re not alone. But your faculty of choice, your ability to choose, is something you can always lean on to get you out of any situation. Sometimes that choice—actually, I would say most of the time—is very minor. It’s a tiny choice.

We rarely encounter big decisions in our lives, like which house to buy, which job to accept, which investment company to trust, or which partner to commit to. These are major crossroads, but they’re rare. The really important choices are the little ones we make every single day, mostly within ourselves, that don’t have obvious physical correlates.

With those big choices I just mentioned, if you have two or three job offers, bless you if you do, you’re having to choose one of them, and there’s an immediate physical change in your reality based on that choice. You may start the new job within a few days, and now you’re in a completely different environment, doing completely different things. It’s a very consequential choice.

The choices I’m talking about are what we can call micro-commitments or micro-choices. These are choices like, “How am I going to brush my teeth?” or “Am I going to brush my teeth right now?” “Which food am I going to choose to eat?” “Will I drink water or Diet Coke?” “Will I walk up the stairs or take the elevator?” “Will I hold my breath in anticipation, or will I choose to relax and breathe softly and deeply right now?”

All of these are micro-choices, but they have huge impacts over time. I would argue that these micro-choices have much bigger impacts than the big choices we tend to focus on. The more conscious choices you make every day, the more consciously you participate in your life. You can tell how present you are, how much you’re showing up, by the number of conscious choices you made today.

One of the hallmarks of conscious choice is that it’s not about choosing between one habit and another that keeps you on the same road with cruise control on. For example, if you’re at lunch at the same restaurant you always go to and have two items you like, neither of which represents the healthiest choice, choosing between them is just picking one habit over another. It’s not a new or conscious choice.

When we consciously participate in our lives, we always choose the good. I’m not speaking in a moral sense or about what we’ve been told is good. In fact, very often, what we’re told is good ends up not being good. For many years, people were told to eat low-fat, to avoid fat entirely. It turns out that was a terrible choice with terrible health consequences.

Now, we understand that we do need to eat fat, just not too much. And I agree with this choice—it’s the healthiest and most balanced. So, when we make a conscious choice, the first thing we do is think for ourselves. We choose based on what we believe is good for us, what will enhance the quality of our life, create a higher state of health, wealth, vitality, joy, and ultimately, happiness.

As divine beings, we want to be happy; we want others to be happy. We want to bring good and happiness into this world, to reflect and embody paradise within, and become beacons of hope, light, and life for others. That’s what we all want when we allow our true selves to shine through.

We have the opportunity to make these choices every day—just a little choice. One thing people often overlook is that our bodies don’t grow in the sense of getting taller once we’re adults. Some of us grow horizontally, but once we’re fully grown, growth still happens within ourselves—it’s regenerative.

When something becomes damaged, our body repairs it, and in that repair process, there’s a growth process where new tissue grows in place of the old damaged tissue. The vast majority of this regenerative activity happens while we are asleep and cannot happen when we’re not asleep. Sleep is the most powerful medicine, along with water and self-love. These are the three most powerful medicines: sleep, water, and self-acceptance.

Every night, we face a choice: go to sleep earlier or later. Anyone getting less than seven hours of sleep is putting themselves in a regenerative deficit, meaning their body doesn’t have enough time in the sleep state to keep up with the repair work it must do daily.

Just living daily life damages our bodies, like driving a car every day does a little damage to the car. Otherwise, the car would never wear out, the engine would never need repair, the tires would never need replacement. The damage accumulates so slowly that we often don’t notice it until something major happens—a breakdown, a flat tire, or the alternator or battery gives out. Suddenly, we notice the degenerative changes and get the car repaired.

Our bodies are the same, but the speed at which these changes happen depends on how we care for ourselves: the stress we put on the body, the quality of the fuel we give it, and, more importantly, the amount of rest we provide. Unlike a car, when you park it in the garage, the car doesn’t begin to self-repair. The tires don’t regrow their tread, the engine doesn’t clean itself out and repair tiny scratches. But our bodies do.

Each night, we face a choice: go to bed an hour earlier or later. It seems almost insignificant to say, “I’m going to choose to go to bed an hour earlier.” It’s just an hour, right? But in the bigger picture, that one hour after a week is seven more hours for your body to self-repair. After 30 days, it’s 30 more hours; after one year, it’s 365 more hours your body has to repair itself.

This is just one example of how what seems like a tiny, insignificant choice can have massive returns or create massive shifts over time. The problem is we live in an instant gratification world. We’ve created a situation where, through the efficiency of our processes, we can transport things long distances, keep them cold for days in refrigerated trucks, shop online, and search engines lead us directly to the information we want without going to a library or acquiring books.

We just pull out a smartphone, and now, with the rise of AI, we can converse with a bot about any topic, pulling knowledge from billions of data points. It’s an instant gratification world, but these little micro-choices don’t bring instant gratification—they bring eternal gratification.

In other words, they’re the most important choices, more important than any other choice you can think of. Tiny choices we make every single day—from when to go to sleep to what to focus our minds on, to how we treat ourselves—are the most important choices.

The more we find ourselves making these choices and being consciously aware of them, the more we know we’re alive, that we’re doing the work of bringing our true, divine, creative selves into manifestation in this world.

Everyone notices the big results, whether they’re getting them or others are. Especially in the realm of achievement, influence, and wealth, these are what we worship. We believe that generating massive influence, high achievements, and large bank accounts reflect power, impact, and success. But the truth is, in the pursuit of these things, many people destroy themselves.

They reach that pinnacle, realizing they’re alone, exhausted, or having a health crisis. Not everyone who achieves these things experiences this, but the point is, the things that are truly important—health, happy relationships, and real happiness—depend 100% on the tiny choices we make every day. The sum total of those choices matters.

The expression “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” is true. One person doing a job does okay, but a team working together far exceeds the sum total of the individuals. It’s the same with micro-choices. The whole effect of all these micro-choices is massively greater than the choices themselves. They may appear tiny, but they are mighty.

So, how can you begin making these micro-choices every day? The key is not to get overwhelmed. If you try to do too many things at once, you might end up doing nothing at all. Focus on smaller areas first, then move on to others. I’ll give you two or three options—just pick one for now and make that choice as often as you can during the day when the opportunity arises.

One area is rest. Most people are constantly trying to do things. I’ve worked with many people who say, “I can’t rest; I have too much to do. I’m always behind.” But who are you behind? This isn’t an Olympic race. There’s nobody ahead of you. You’re just in a state of lack, where you believe it’s not enough.

Rest is crucial. For the next three days, every opportunity you have to slow down, take a break, and get more sleep—make that choice. Many people see napping as a sign of failure or weakness. Just for the next three to seven days, let’s change that belief.

You don’t have to change it completely, just in the moment when you feel really tired, and your body tells you it wants to rest. Maybe your default choice is to drink another cup of coffee or push through it. Instead, make the choice to listen to your body. Drink some water, lie down, and rest. You might fall asleep, and that’s okay. Set an alarm for 20 or 30 minutes and just rest.

If you work from home, this is easy to do—unless you have toddlers, in which case, we know toddlers naturally take naps. We allow them to nap because it’s good for their health, mental health, and growth—spiritual, mental, and physical. As adults, we need naps just as much, and they’re just as good for us.

Just like sleep and rest are essential for a child’s physical growth, as we get older, sleep and rest are essential for our spiritual growth. For the next three to seven days, make the choice for rest. Let go of the to-do list. Think about all the things on your to-do list and be honest with yourself about how important they are in the grand scheme of things.

We attach way too much importance to most of the things we do because it justifies our ignorance of our need to rest. So, just for the next three to seven days, don’t do that. Make the choice to listen to your body and give it rest. Make the choice to go to bed an hour earlier than you normally do.

It is a choice because your habit will push you down that normal road, and you’ll have to turn off autopilot, take the wheel, slow down, and exit that highway you’re normally cruising on. It’ll take effort, and it’ll feel weird at first because you’re not used to it. Just like taking an exit you’ve never taken before—you’re in new territory, not sure what you’ll see, what types of places or people are there, or if there’s even anyone at all.

It’s a little scary, too, but that’s okay. Give yourself grace and permission to feel weird, maybe a little anxious, and do it anyway. A tiny little choice: “I feel a little tired; it’s 2 o’clock. Let me just rest for 30 minutes. I’m not going to push through this time. I’m going to make a different choice.”

That rest can be a nap, or just sitting down and reading a book—not a book about your job or something you’re trying to learn, but one that inspires you, makes you feel good, uplifts or amuses you. It has nothing to do with achievement. Or just sit back in a comfortable chair, close your eyes, and rest. Be still. Whatever it is, do it. Make that choice.

Then, again, make the choice to go to bed an hour earlier. After three days, see how you feel, how your mood is, your level of stress. Pay attention to how you’re showing up in the things you focus on, your daily routine, tasks, colleagues, family, and loved ones. Notice and make note of the changes occurring in those realms.

Then you’ll see what I’m talking about—how this tiny, inconsequential choice is actually highly consequential. Another choice you could try—feel free to try two or three, but at a bare minimum, focus on one—is to eat breakfast. If you already eat breakfast every day, congratulations—you’re in the minority.

But don’t just eat anything; eat something healthy and substantial. My go-to is eggs. Eggs are high in protein, a clean food with no additives, preservatives, or processing. It’s just like nature made it. Eat a couple of eggs, maybe with some vegetables. You can make eggs so many different ways, so you’re unlikely to get bored as long as you don’t eat them the same way every day. But it’s not about whether we’re bored with it or not.

This is another choice we have the opportunity to make. We can choose to feel entertained, or we can choose to do what’s good for our body. When we say we’re sick of eating eggs, what we’re really saying is, “I need to be entertained, or it’s not enough.” But when we eat eggs every morning and give thanks for the nourishment we’re getting, you see the difference.

These are two very small choices: one, to see the abundance, and two, to eat healthy, energy-packed food instead of just bread, cookies, or cereal, which are far less nutritious than protein like eggs, chicken, or anything from that category. Make that choice for three to seven days and see what happens.

The final choice to try is to drink only water. If you want a cup of coffee in the morning, that’s okay—I love my morning coffee. But after that, for the rest of the day, don’t drink soft drinks, tea, lemonade, or alcohol. Just drink water—at least six full glasses of water. You’re going to make the choice to do that, right?

You’ll have to choose when to drink the water, to finish the glass, to drink a glass you might not even feel like drinking, but you’ll do it because you know it’s good for you. Make that choice, follow it for three to seven days, and see what happens. Watch the changes in your skin, notice the changes in your energy and digestion—just from this one little change.

You always have the power to choose. In fact, it is your greatest power—not just choosing these things I’m talking about now, but choosing what you think about and focus on every single moment of every single day. That’s your superpower.

But you must show up and choose—not just allow the default to run, not just stay on cruise control. Take that wheel in your hands, use the brake, use the accelerator, shift things, go in different directions, stop and rest, maybe push through something you can’t normally push through—whatever it is, make the choice. By doing that, you’ll be exercising your innate freedom.