When’s the last time you made a choice, I mean REALLY made a choice and stuck to it and did it ? Do you keep promising yourself that you will lose weight, drink less, stop smoking, take up exercise ? Can you identify what stops you succeeding? Rather than feeling guilty and beating up on ourselves when we don’t achieve our goals, it can be enlightening to look at why we want what we want and how our choices can sabotage our best intentions. What is the desire behind the scenes?
The first step to achieving any goal is to realize that you have the will to succeed within you. It is up to you whether you choose to use this or not. However, in order to succeed at anything we must really want it. Often the choices we make aren’t based on what WE really want. Often they may express someone else’s desire. We make choices based on a whole range of variants, some real, others less so. By analyzing why we want something, we can define how important it is to us and this can help sustain our motivation.
By observing the choices you make throughout a day, you can get a good sense of what drives you. Are you a people pleaser? Count how many times you make a real choice. A choice where you actually really want something and you make a real determined, purposeful decision to do it/get it/etc. Watch yourself and see how many choices you make in a day, from the mundane to the life changing .
As human beings the fact that we are free to choose so much is one of our greatest gifts. Even in times of hardship we always have choices. When Nelson Mandela was confined to Robben Island, he had a choice, to be bitter and angry or to trust and extend his hand. Only you hold the power to succeed in the choices you make, and choice is intertwined in everything that occurs in our lives. You can begin to see how your choices lead you to everything you experience, whether you choose to give others power over you or whether you choose to succeed in your goals, everything is up to you. it’s your choice !
Published in The West Cork People July 2009
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