What Choice Do I Have?

Choice consists of the mental process of thinking involved with the process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one of them for action. Some simple examples include deciding whether to get up in the morning or go back to sleep, or selecting a given route for a journey.

That is the Wikipedia definition of choice. Wow – there’s a lot more involved in making a choice than I thought. Thinking. Judging. Options. Selection. Phew. It makes me tired just reading those works. But really, it’s all good. Sometimes it can be overwhelming, but think of the freedom that choice brings. We’re not prisoners of our lives. We can have a different life by simply making a different choice.

Sure, circumstances are part of the equation, but it’s how I react to circumstances that really determines what kind of day I’ll have. I could choose to let my blood pressure rise and use creative hand gestures when that little red Mazda zips in front of me. Or I can choose to move along and be thankful that I have a car that can travel on the freeway to the job I have that pays me pretty good money which allows me to buy groceries, gas, and some of life’s other necessities (like chocolate and fabric). Hmmm – I think I’ll go with number 2.

When life gets us down and we’re feeling trapped we need to remember that we have a choice. In fact, we often have several choices or, as Wikipedia says, multiple options. Sometimes we simply need to be open to that fact and engage in the “mental process of thinking” and remind ourselves of all the possibilities we could choose from. Just being open to alternatives is a good place to start. We may need to consider that the opposite of what we are doing or feeling is a viable and possibly even preferable choice.

It’s easy to forget that we have a choice and to assume that this is the way things are and we can’t do anything about them. But we aren’t powerless. We can choose to be cranky or good humored, optimistic or pessimistic, complain or be thankful.

What r u thankful 4?