Wandering thoughts- Part 5: Choices

Sometimes I wonder what IF, I could change one thing I did or the one step that I took or one choice that I made in the past. That is a BIG IF and there is nothing I can change about it but what I  can change is my future by choosing right now how I want to live the rest of my life.

 “Two roads diverged in the yellow wood,

and sorry I could not travel both……

I took the one less travelled by

And that has made all the difference”- the famous poem “The Road not taken” by Robert Frost is one of the best example of the dilemma of choosing.  

As per the William Glasser, “all the choices we make are to satisfy the five basic needs: survival, love & belonging, power, freedom and fun.” People may argue that having a free choice is mankind’s greatest gift and also its greatest curse, but for me, the choice is the purest form of free will (way better than the freedom promised by our constitution). In book Man’s Search for Meaning, the Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl observed that “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” If there was no choice then a person might never grow mentally because only by choosing we learn to be responsible and get to know our capabilities. For a child most of the things, likes/dislikes, wrong/rights etc. are decided by the parents but as he/she grows older decision may still be influenced by other but choices are his/her personal.

For some people making choices is hard because they hate to make decisions as they are always afraid of the consequences of a wrong decision. For them, every decision they make is like making a commitment to a choice and sticking with it. The main problem is when they face a situation where they have to make a choice; they overlook at the long term impact on their life but only worry about the immediate results.  And then there is another kind who can make choices like making tea using tea bags. They don’t get confused by the options available and sort out things/priorities/emotions in their mind and then just apply the basics in each situation they face. From a simple thing of getting up on time in the morning or what to eat for lunch to where you want to see yourself in the next 10 years or to choose a partner, the range of choices is unimaginable and overwhelming. 

Our faith, core values and attitude towards life are influenced by our choices.  Materialistic choices like Education, job, location, financial decisions are relatively easy to choose.  But what most people struggle with is relationships and a person should choose them wisely as they affect our thoughts & life more than we can think of.  We live in an unprecedented age of options and sometimes making choices can be a little difficult as choosing something inherently means giving up something else. But the best choices in life are the ones whose consequences align with your long term goals, even if they are hard in the beginning.

And no matter what the situation is, there is always a choice and that choice makes all the difference in life. Period.