The Benefits of Choosing

The Benefits of Choosing

How do our choices dictate who we are? 

What I mean is, when we choose to do something, whether that’s choosing where to eat or what to read, how does this shape us in the other aspects of our lives? 

By choosing to run to daily, I’ve created a routine for myself.  I’ve become a creature of habit.  In doing so, when my routine is thrown, my life becomes less predictable and more chaotic.  In some cases straying from this routine has proven to have a positive outcome.  In other cases, not so much.  BUT, by making the choice to run everyday, I also choose how and when I do other things.  It forces me to prioritize, dictate, and ensure progression with my daily tasks, work, and even food choices.  

Sound a little far fetched?  That’s because it is.  My life choices aren’t because I run.  More so,  because I start my day with one specific choice I am then presented with a unique challenge.  How do I run within my time limit, shower, prepare for the day, get to my appointments on time, choose a healthy, yet quick lunch, maintain a level of professionalism through the 3:00pm slump, and then go about the rest of the day? 

In an average day, one person may make hundreds or even thousands of choices.  From as little as what to wear, to as big as what to invest in.  But each choice, each small act of making that final decision to press forward one way or the other then changes how we make our next decision.  For instance, if I choose to forgo breakfast so get to another task faster I may experience a lack of energy.  This lack of energy may follow me around throughout the day, making my other decisions hasty, poor, and consequential. 

Remember those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books?  You would read a chapter or two to get the basis of the story.  Then at the end of the chapter you’d be faced with a decision: “To continue on into the dark cave, turn to page 34” or “To go back to the village and search for help, turn to page 15.”  You could read the book multiple times and rarely have the same ending, yet it was all one book that resulted in usually less than 100 pages.  It’s all about choices.  Sometimes the adventure would end quickly and, I might add, most disappointing.  Other times the adventure could go on for a while.  

In your own life, when you make a choice do you ever think about the effect it may have on anything else or do you wander through your day making choices without a second thought?

So, once again, I will ask “How do our choices dictate who we are?”  Or better yet, “How do our choices dictate what becomes of who we are?”