11 June 2009

Choice is a gift


It does not get any simpler than that! Given every aspect of our lives, this is the foundation of how we live. In our personal lives, in our careers... in this country and in this world. The ultimate evaluation comes from what choices did we make to get to where we are?

Do you like the green dress or the white dress?
Do you want the brick house or the stucco house?
Do you like the Mercedes or the BMW?
Do you want to have Japanese or Italian for dinner tonight?
Are you going to attend the 4th of July celebration?
What will I invest my money in?
How much should we start saving now for the children's college fund?

Practically every decision we make, any move, any thought, is based on a moment, or a relative amount of time spent, considering and weighing one option against another.

Many of us are influenced by our family members, friends, work associates and even strangers that we hear on the radio, or see on TV. Something that others are doing immediately urges us to "do the same thing," in hopes of having the same or similar results.

Advertisements show us all of the testimonials of ALL the people who are involved and have had great success. "This is where it's at!! Here's what you want to be doing! Let us show you the way!"

And so, you look on eagerly ..... you think.... and you make a choice.

Or perhaps, you make no choice. But ...

That is a choice within in itself. Making no choice simply means you choose not to deal with "IT" at this time. You choose to say, "I'm not interested." You may even think, "I'm not that easy." "I know you just want my money." "I have tried things in the past and they did not work, and this is probably the same thing all over again."

Sometimes people do this because they can't wrap their minds around the idea of trying something new and different. They feel they have been "taken" too many times before. They are jammed tightly in a distorted "comfort zone" that has them thinking it's easier to stay there than to venture out and learn about what is truly going on. Because that is what is very necessary to make a choice... learning and understanding what you may be getting yourself into. Learn about it.

Life makes it easy for us to make choices, because there are so many -- perhaps too many. We have a good percentage of friends who seem to always choose the "right" and the "best" things to do. Then we have those that are in the middle, some "good" and some "bad." Then we have those, again, that choose nothing, or choose all the "easy" things.

But it's not easy is it? Truth be told.

It's not easy to say, "I don't care, I will just do this." In your mind, you have already told yourself with those simple words that you are going to give yourself "less than you deserve." You have already set yourself up for the demise you will face. You are preparing yourself for the "nothing" and the "mediocrity" that will follow.

In cases of health and well-being, to choose to, "lay on the couch day in and day out with no cares in the world about eating a balanced healthy diet, and absolutely no exercise," have you chosen to really and truly feel well? You have chosen to not be well.

The next time you go to the doctor and again he tells you that your cholesterol is too high, or your diabetes has gotten worse, or your blood pressure is still dangerously high....... are you satisfied with your choice? When you lay down to sleep tonight and you are tossing and turning from indigestion or perhaps heart palpitations, are you satisfied with your choice?

How many other questions like these can you come up with? Ones that having you weigh the choice you made... versus the choice you SHOULD have made???

In retrospect, what it really comes down to is, it does not matter what color dress you have, or even what car you drive..... if you have chosen the road to illness, sadness and hopelessness.

It's our gift... to be able to have a choice....

Enjoy your gift -- to yourself!

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