The Hidden Significance of Small Choices

It's easy to understand the importance of the big choices we make in life like deciding on a career, getting married and choosing where to live. The long-term consequences of these decisions carry a lot of weight, which is why we worry about getting them right. They are also the reason we try to prepare our kids to make the right big decisions that will determine their futures.

However, it has been my experience that even though those big choices are important, it is the attention to the little choices in life that ultimately determine your level of success – and they are often the harder ones to get right. Most people have a pretty good idea of what they want to do in life or who they want to marry. Once those choices are made, they are fairly easy to stick to because they come with their own momentum. Commitment comes naturally for the big choices.

It's those smaller daily choices that can be harder to commit to, but they end up having a profound impact on your success. For instance, I made a choice early on in my career to put aside 20 percent of my income toward the future. It may not have seemed like a momentous choice at the time, but I stuck with it. Thanks to the power of compounding, I had achieved economic freedom by my forties.

Becoming a dentist is a big choice, but once you have made it, you are probably in it for the long haul. The smaller choices you make afterwards, like having a plan for your continuing education and staying connected with colleagues and mentors online, are what determine the kind of a career you will have in dentistry. Those choices along with your day-to-day decisions you make in patient care, practice management and team leadership may not seem as important as those big life-defining ones, but ultimately they do end up defining your life.