"I want to convey my story by illustrating how decision-making changes lives.  Whatever the decision is, good or bad.  The key is to make a decision and live with the consequences.  No one will get anywhere if a decision isn't made. My story is the same in either action or concept to everyone in someway.  I tell it openly and freely. Let my story fuel your desire to change. Use the principle of decision-making as the main idea of my story.

I am a LDS convert since 2010 when I was 18 years old.  I was born and raised in Utah with a family situation similar to many people.  My parents are divorced and I have 4 siblings.  We had many ups and downs along the way. I didn’t have religion growing up.  I was indifferent to faith because we didn’t speak of it at home. I was oblivious to progress, growth, and personal potential. I coasted through my youth.  I did what I thought was expected of me or what everyone else was doing.  I wasn’t happy.  I was being acted upon instead of acting for myself.  It wasn’t until I chose my own path, live for myself you could say.  That’s when I began to feel happy.  My happiness was superficial and empty because the decisions I was making were dumb to begin with.  I tried to find myself in everything I wasn’t.  However, my dumb decisions began to turn around.  Soon my decision to become LDS was at hand.  I had to fight to do so, I had opposition the whole journey.  The struggle to serve a mission was even stronger.  But nothing was going to stop me from what I wanted to do. Some people know the feeling of “I have to do this because I feel it.”  The two decisions to be baptized and serve a mission were the best things I could ever have done.  I served in Bogota Colombia. There, I learned I loved people and to see people grow and progress mentally and spiritually.  When I came back to Utah I brought a burning desire to help others and show them it’s easy to be happy, it starts with a simple thought and progresses from there.

I am Co-founder of Life Decided, an initiative for growth and progress centered around decision making.  My brother and I want to create something bigger than ourselves.  We want everyone to see their potential and use it.  It’s impossible for me to separate my religious experience and new way of thinking from telling my story because they are who I am.  Everything I do should direct me toward something good and beneficial, I don’t want to waste time with things that don’t add to my life or the lives of others.   I only existed for many years until I decided to live for myself.  Now I am here to help everyone who wants to be happy, which everyone has an innate desire for. LIfe Decided has a key for success, it’s called thinking. We have the power to think our way to happiness, it takes trial and error, frustration and struggle, and strength and willpower.  For me Life begins when it’s Decided."

- Riley Nielsen