Curious about Options - Do You Have Enough Options? One Is Not Sufficient!

“I always say don't make plans, make options.” - Jennifer Aniston

“We must reinvent a future free of blinders so that we can choose from real options.” - David Suzuki

“It's an infinite creative universe to explore so why chase conservative options?” - Yahoo Serious

In the last few days I listened to an interview of Carol Frank, author of the book, Do As I Say, Not As I Did! Gaining Wisdom In Business Through The Mistakes Of Highly Successful People. One of the statements she made - and that is repeated in the book - was, “Options are not optional.” She had relied on one company to supply her bird cages and when that company couldn’t come through, she didn’t have options available.

What a great statement and so true in so many ways. I would say that having a top value of flexibility as one of the most important reasons for me to have a “Portfolio Career” (a variety of careers at the same time) is that I have options. When one career starts to lose its desirability, I can give it up because I have other career options. Or, when one lags and/or falls short of income production, I still have the options of stepping up the others.

Joy Page wrote, “Information can bring you choices and choices bring power - educate yourself about your options and choices. Never remain in the dark of ignorance.”

In addition, Wayne Dyer said, “Each person must decide for himself what he wants each day. As a leader, I will expose you to the options and the likely consequences of those options. I'll even share my opinion if asked, but I'll never confuse it with the opinion, which simply doesn't exist.”

I believe, whether it has to do with business or life, itself, we must take the “blinders” off and realize that we do have choices and options - we just must “decide” what we want, and then commit to it. When Frank’s company was being sued and she feared bankruptcy, she made the choice to keep on fighting through it. She found this to be true of the successful people she interviewed for her book. So many give up the minute they experience a challenging setback.

Other quotations that deal with this are:

• “If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or Fight Like Hell.” - Lance Armstrong
• “There are only two options regarding commitment. You're either IN or you're OUT. There's no such thing as life in-between.” - Pat Riley
• “We must dare to think 'unthinkable' thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world.” - James W. Fulbright

You see, I feel strongly that we all do have options in every area of our lives - we just have to define and choose them. Each of us has the power of choice when we face setbacks and/or positive perks. It is all in the way we approach them.

Some other thought-provoking quotations I will leave you with include:

• “In the United States today, there is a pervasive tendency to treat children as adults, and adults as children. The options of children are thus steadily expanded, while those of adults are progressively constricted. The result is unruly children and childish adults.” - Thomas Szasz
• “There's not a single business model, and there's not a single type of electronic content. There are really a lot of opportunities and a lot of options and we just have to discover all of them.” - Tim O'Reilly
• “Money is only a vehicle that provides you with options, and I say there's only one thing that money can't buy - poverty.” - Jerry Doyle

In every situation, good or bad, I suggest you make a list of the options available to you - let yourself go. You will be amazed. Yes, we all have enough options - or should have - when we choose to!