Letter from the editor
Choices
No matter which side of the road you end up on, chances are good that you are where you are because you made a choice!
I am always intrigued when listening in on conversations regarding other people’s lives. What I find most interesting are the twists and turns surrounding certain events in their lives where as a spectator I ask myself, “Why on earth did he or she do that”? Now I know that sounds judgmental and it is always easy for the person who is watching from the sidelines to have all the right answers. After all, when you have a seat on the front row of someone else’s experience, you have a vantage point that is very different from the one who is actually in the middle of what is going on. Because you are a mere spectator, you are able to see the entire picture in addition to the background scenery, whereas the person who is actually having the experience is usually focused only on what is directly in front of them. Furthermore, your emotions are detached and therefore your instinct is somewhat sharper than the person who is in the starring role. And so, we find it easy to shake our heads in disbelief of the choices made by others without taking into consideration why they might have landed where they did.
Every single day of a person’s life is filled with moments where decisions or choices must be made. The sad fact is most of us make critical decisions about our lives without stepping back to do an assessment or understanding the entire picture before making them. Most often we move faster than we can think and we do things without considering the consequences of our choices until long after the damage has been done. So much of the pain and heartache we experience in life is due to our failure to take our time when choosing.
A few years ago I made a decision that to this day I continue to deal with the huge fallout. I have examined my reasons for doing what ultimately has cost me time that I will never get back and money that would have served me well in moving forward with some of the things I would like to do. The truth is, like many people who have made wrong choices, I allowed myself to get caught up in the window dressing of what was being presented to me. I did not think about what would be the impact if things did not go as planned, nor did I consider the other options that were also available to me at the time.
The funny thing is a dear friend had shared something with me years ago that had I remembered, I would be in such a different place today. What the late Stan Smillie shared is still worth remembering. What he said was this, if there is a deal on the table that is the best deal you could ever hope for today, before making a decision, SLEEP ON IT! He further stated that if it is a good decision today, it will be a good decision tomorrow. In other words, never make a critical decision about your life in haste. Twenty-four hours might seem like a long time when you have a hot deal staring you in the face, but it is the shortest distance between a good choice and what could potentially be one of the worst decisions of your life.
Life is filled with unexpected occurrences, many of which are totally out of our control. Each day we are given things that very often are the result of decisions that were made by others without any consideration being given to how it would affect our lives. As inconvenient as this reality might be it is also what makes life such an amazing adventure. We don’t always get to choose the things that happen to us each day, but we are always given the option of deciding which response we will choose.
Remember, choices are always on the table, so when you choose, choose well!
Deigratia,
Bonnie