The Power of Choice (And why you must choose….)
In each person there lies a powerful gift that is arguably the most powerful of all to be bestowed upon us. That is the Power of Choice. Said another way, each of us has been given the luxury to make decisions in all that we do. Where we stand today is merely nothing more than the summation of all of the decisions that we have made prior to that moment.
It’s pretty easy to identify those who have made a majority of poor decisions and good decisions but many people fall right in the middle of the spectrum. We’ve all made decisions that we could be proud of and others we’d soon enough forget the moment we get done dealing with the consequences….
Although we all inherit this wonderful blessing, many people are inept to handle it and the responisibity that comes with it. They misunderstand its utmost authority over our lives by touting things they HAVE to do rather than respecting they are only required to choose. In that choice lies the power to everything or nothing at all. Those who believe in God say “he has a plan” for each and everyone of us. I believe one must think about this carefully as it relates to your ability to choose. I would say that God has an infinite number of plans for each of us. When plan we end up implementing is again, based on the decisions we make each moment – including the decision to spend time reading these thoughts….
Decisions form the foundation of some of the simpliest aspects of our life. Take time for example. Most people speak of having or not having time to do things throughout the course of a day. Time however is not something that anyone has more or less of. Time is only a perspective rooted in our decisions. What time allows for one to accomplish throughout a day rests in decisions, not a container of an intangible concept.
I simply lay out all of this as a prelude to guiding thought when it comes to the realisation of what happens when we FAIL to make decisions. I’m sure everyone at some point has gotten stuck at the fork in the road faced with multiple roads and a singular decision to make. It is at this point we run the risk of entering into a non-productive state of being. When one fails to make decision he fails to move forward to the next decision. This indecisiveness often stems from a fear of not what lies beyond not the fork in the road, but rather the decison itself. “Is it the best decision?” If you minimize your power of choice you fail to realize that your perfectly entitled to make another decision after the previous one. And so we sit idle, torturing ourselves losing valuable time with each passing moment to reap the reward, or consequences, of our decisions. And so an undecisive man is a non-productive one. Those who master the art of evaluating decisions for a reasonable amount of time and then moving swiftly transform into the movers and shakers of the world. While those undecided stand on the sidelines of life still debating on whether to come out and play.
Utilizing one’s power of choice can take you down an undesired path, but that same power will allow you create a new fork in the road on demand upon which you may make another choice. Our gift is the Power of Choice, and our sole requirement is to use it while respecting the consequences of doing so or NOT doing so. When at an undesired point in life, we all must remind ourselves that we can start deciding to be somewhere else right that very moment. We can choose to believe in ourselves – RIGHT NOW. We can choose to be loving and humane – RIGHT NOW. We can choose to be the best of the best – RIGHT NOW. WE CAN CHOOSE ANYTHING WE WANT RIGHT NOW, NOT TOMORROW, NOT ON NEW YEAR’S EVE, NOT NEXT WEEK – RIGHT NOW! You wield the Power of Choice and so you must decide…… Be swift, Be Productive, and Be Decisive…..