“When you make a choice, you change the future.” ~ Deepak Chopra
The words that will suck the life out of your life are some of the few words that will both anger and sadden me when I hear someone or even myself saying them. (which I try not to do!)
“I guess I have no choice.”
I was having an email conversation the other day when the other person felt like they were not getting what they wanted so the response was “Well I guess I have no choice.” Picture Eeyore here, head and ears drooped, telling Pooh that life is so depressing and there’s nothing he can do about it. Now in true Pooh wisdom, which is what I channeled, I said “You do have a choice” and I went about listing options, adding honey to my email voice.
Two different views, Eeyore (btw, I love Eeyore) playing the victim, handing over his power to Pooh and Pooh giving Eeyore his power back and adding honey. That’s making a choice.
Choosing not to make a choice is still a choice, it’s a choice that says, “I don’t care how my life goes so you decide” or it says, “I’m trying to get my way or make you bend to my rules so I’m pretending to hand you my power.” (read:choice)
“I discovered I always have choices and sometimes it’s only a choice of attitude.”~Judith M. Knowlton
Good, bad or indifferent, choices define our lives and when you don’t make them you miss out on living your life fully. Even bad choices are lessons we need to learn and when we turn away from them we never lean into the whole of that lesson.
But what about the big choices? The change your job, start a business, move to a new place, sell everything and travel kind of choices, what stops us from making those?
There’s lots of excuses, bills to pay, family to take care of, too close to retirement or any other reasons that society will pat you on the back and tell you “it’s okay.” Now you are off the hook, choice made for you and lots of people will agree with that choice because they have made it too. (read:safety in numbers)
I believe that most of the time we see the big choices as an all or nothing option so we try to quickly hand them off. But at some point in your life will you look back and say “what if I had made a different choice?”
Here’s a different approach, what if you took those big choices, the ones that really tug at your heart and speak to you constantly and turned them into bite size choices. Smaller choices that get you to the bigger one in small steps. Wouldn’t that make the choice easier?
Any choice is a big deal for you and your life, even the ones that feel very benign.
You never know where a simple choice might lead you someday so step into your power, not away from it and choose your life, your attitude and how you want to feel. And when you feel the words “I guess I don’t have a choice” coming into your head, stop, breathe and choose. Making a choice will keep the life in your life!
Tell me how you feel about making choices and what choices you have made that really changed your life.
Share the love of this post with someone in your life that might need more choices in theirs.
photo credit: Kratka Photography via photopin cc