Choices, Choices Everywhere

Every day we make hundreds and hundreds of choices, most of which are unconscious and overlooked.  For instance, when you choose to get up in the morning you make the choice of putting your feet on the floor and standing up instead of falling out of bed.  It’s not a choice you give a lot of thought to but it is important and mostly made subconsciously. Okay, sometimes we are not that steady on our feet and we may choose to stand up but your body falls anyway depending on the night we had or other issues.  My point is you make the choice of getting up; it doesn’t just happen. 

Other choices we make have more thought involved with them.  How about driving down the road and deciding to run the yellow light or wait for the next green?  Maybe you’ve run so many yellow lights that it doesn’t seem like much of a choice to you but you are making a choice and the more unconscious this choice is the more dangerous it becomes.

With all the choices you make, three basic rules apply:

  1. Everything in your life is a choice
  2. You, and you alone, have the final say in your choices
  3. There are consequences to every choice you make

I can already hear the arguments regarding the first rule.  I’ve been thinking a lot and every instance I can think of comes back to a choice you make.  Even the death argument holds true.  I concede that you don’t get a choice of when you die but you do get a choice on when and how to live.  There are many choices you can, and I expect do, make that help you to keep living like eating food, staying healthy and avoiding dangerous, life threatening situations.  So even life and death are a choice you make.

Same holds true for the second rule.  Worst case scenario is someone wants to force their will on you; that’s their choice not yours.  Your choice is to fight them or go along and depending on how you perceive the third rule, the consequences, will have a huge impact on how you choose.  We might be influenced by others’ choices, but we decide for ourselves whether to follow their decision or one of our own. 

The hardest of these rules can be the third, every choice has a consequence.  Luckily, most of our choices have consequences that we like and want.  When you choose to pay your heating bill you have the benefit of being warm in the winter.  However, if you choose not to pay for the groceries at the store the consequence will probably be jail time.

What does all this mean?  These rules open up the possibilities in your life.  They mean you don’t have to feel stuck in any situation; you can make a choice and change that situation.  They mean you don’t have to settle for the consequence of a choice; you can choose differently to change the consequence.  They mean you no longer have to feel like someone else is dictating your life; you choose your path.

Share