Right now you can make a choice that will take you in a totally different direction…
Make a choice to go to lunch with someone, hear about a new job opportunity, and suddenly you are working somewhere else in 3 months.
Make a choice to have a meeting with an old friend, hear about a death, realize you knew that person and you begin a journey home to your past reconnecting, even marrying a childhood love.
Make a choice to get off your phone, connect with someone on line at the grocery store, it reminds you of another person who you call when you get to your car and instead of driving out of the parking lot, you miss the accident that happened moments later and your car may have been in it!
Every choice and decision leads to another choice and decision. But you are the one in control. You and only you are responsible for your own choices. If you choose to make a bad choice: cheat, lie, steal, have an affair, take money from a job, steal from a dear friend, you have made those choices…and all choices have a consequence. Some good. Some not so good.
Good choices usually bring good things, bad choices that may intentionally hurt others, may not turn out well. So if given the choice: don’t choose them. Or do choose them. But know the risk.
I always like to make my choices simply by stating the following: “Everyone I know is going to know I’ve made this choice. Is it now still okay?”
If it is, then I do it. If it’s not, I hesitate and think twice, often rethinking and then not doing what I wanted to do. Because simply put, if I’d be embarrassed or devastated if anyone knew – than I don’t do it!
Period.
I met a guy at Rock and Brews at LAX Southwest terminal. He told me about his 2 brothers who both made poor choices in high school. Drinking, doing drugs, stealing. The man admitted he also did those things as well…for a bit…then he made the choice to stop. Both of his brothers did not.
Fast forward 30 years and the man I was speaking with is doing well; happily married with 3 kids and a great job he loves. His brothers, both divorced, one brother divorced twice, are both in jobs they don’t like. One can’t even keep a job and the other continues to say life has been horrible to him. But both still drink and do drugs.
So what do you think? To these brothers, is it bad luck or bad choices?
I guess the only thing that matters is that you consciously make good choices…for you – the ones that you can sleep well with at night.