Life is a series of choices. We might not be able to choose all of the things that come our way (like illness) but we always choose our attitudes, our reactions and our next steps.
When people say, “But I have no choice,” it’s a lie. Everything is a choice.
In an extreme case, your choices might be to do something you don’t want to or die, but you do have that option.
Most cases, however, aren’t life or death, no matter how dramatic they feel. There are always options, usually many of them. We say, however, that we have no choice because in reality we don’t like the consequence of making another choice. And when we complain about “having” to do something, really, we’re just dealing with a consequence we hadn’t thought of when making the original choice. For example, someone who wants to retire but they can’t because their youngest is still in high school is dealing with the choice to have kids, and with the consequences of other choices along the way.
In my experience, most complaints come from people making unconscious choices, and from not considering the consequences of those choices.
During my university career, I often made non-choices. I never chose a major; I simply took courses until I found a program that had the fewest required courses that I didn’t like. Later, when I was stuck in my office job and not leaving, I kept saying, “But I have no choice. I have to stay.” That was a lie. I wouldn’t leave and take a pay cut, which I could have easily done if I’d applied for a job in another office.
I wasted a lot of time saying, “But I have no choice.”
Eventually I did make a choice to take a pay cut; I started my business and discovered a bunch of other unanticipated consequences of my choice, but that didn’t matter. I was ready to deal with most of them because I’d made a conscious choice for the first time.
Are you actively choosing all your actions or do you let the decisions happen without your input?
Remember as well that procrastination is a choice - whenever you don’t move towards your dreams, you are choosing to procrastinate and waste time.
Take control of your life and start making active choices!
And to help, here at Someday Syndrome, there’s a new ebook in the Someday Syndrome Cure series: I’ll Get Around To It Someday.
In this workbook you get short lessons followed by exercises and worksheets that lead you from procrastination to action, from fearing changing to embracing it, and from never starting or finishing to following through on all your dreams.
So click here to take a look at what the book can do to turn Someday into today.
Or click the button
to the left to buy it now.
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