Image by Stuart Miles
Are you happy with who you are choosing to become? The notion of ‘choice’ in our society lives out in a variety of ways. There are those that embrace the idea of choice and fully accept that they are the sum total of their choices. They live life intentionally. At the other end of the spectrum are those that believe that life happens ‘to’ them. That there are a random series of events called life that just show up. They are shocked, amazed, and often disappointed by what they are experiencing. I hear, “I can’t believe that happened to me, and I can’t believe that I reacted the way I did. OMG.” And then there are those who choose part of the time with intention, and live another part with some sort of benign neglect. It appears that sustaining control over choosing who they become is just too much energy. If we could understand that the ‘control’ we choose is at the very essence of what we experience in life, well, we might experience life from a very different viewpoint.
I look at my own evolution and reflect that I have lived life in all three ‘spheres.’ At first I lived life believing that things just happened to me and weren’t a result of any of my choices. It led to a period during my teenage years of great high’s and low’s.
In my 20’s I determined that I didn’t want to continue the wild swings of emotion and uncertainty. I chose to become more like my father. I was not only even keeled, I appeared to not have emotion for periods of time. That wasn’t who I wanted to be either.
It was then that the evolution of me became about balance, experimentation, education, and risk. I began to explore and experience life as an adventure that I chose. It was then that I began to choose to see life as things that happened and how I chose to react to them. While I had always been a pretty positive person, that was often an external ‘mask.’ I began to choose to grow the positivity from the inside. I began to choose ‘opportunity’ and ‘what is here in this situation for me to learn from.’ I became more open to what life had to offer, all of it. It was then that I chose the positive energy that I would use daily to ‘experience’ life in another way.
It was in that choosing that I began to notice that less events and things ‘happening’ to me would get me down for very long. I chose to see things differently. It was then that I began to experience life as the way I chose to – as a wonderfully exciting experience full of all kinds of ‘interruptions’ (painful events that could take my breath away) that I might not choose, but I could choose how I wanted to react or respond to those events. In that energy came healing for myself and healing for others. In that choice came the understanding of my gifts.
I recognized that the world is full of pain, and life is full of challenges. I experienced that many get stuck in their pain. I recognized that introducing more positive energy to them helped them to see something different…at least sometimes. It helped me to understand my calling.
What is your energy? Who have you chosen to become? What might you have if you ‘tweaked’ your choices? Could life be more than what it is for you today? Is that worth fighting for?
Regardless of how long we live, it is a short amount of time. How we spend and expend energy affects the quality of that life. I choose to live with a sense of gratitude and hope. And you?
To a better you…