The reality of choice

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about choices.  I think that there are a lot of things in my life, that I just assume I must do or accept.  I’ve also heard a lot of people say “I wish I could BUT,” or “I can’t.”  It’s an incredibly frustrating feeling to seemingly be out of options.  But the truth is, you really have a choice for almost everything in your life.  Don’t like your job?  Get a new one.  I know that the response normally is, I can’t because I have to pay the bills, or I went to college for this, etc..but none of these truly prevent you from leaving your job do they?  I think that by talking yourself into a trapped position, you really run the risk of squashing your true wishes, hopes, dreams into a point of no return.  I know that I’ve been in moods where a want was part of a plan yesterday, and now just a hopeless dream today because I’ve taken away my ability to choose.  It’s really amazing how free we are (I know that it’s especially easy for me to say with no one to take care of really other than myself)…Recognizing this really opens our ability to dream, and therefore really opens unlimited doors for us. A great section on Po Bronson’s book talks about this woman who fully realized her life was full of choices, and she was never afraid to make them.

After college, I worked for a year at Oxford, because well, it was Oxford.  I told the other women at work, and one said, ‘I wish I could just up and go to Oxford.’ So I asked, ‘Why don’t you?’ She said, ‘I would, but I just bought a couch.’ I always remembered that moment, and I never wanted to be that woman.  I never wanted to be trapped by my belongings, my past, my commitments.

How could a little couch trap you from your dream to go to Oxford?!  It can’t! It’s up to you, and me to be aware of the infinite choices we have in this lifetime, and the power we truly have over our lives.

It all starts with the vocab, I believe. Instead of saying, “I can’t go,” say to yourself, “I choose not to.”