Curious about Choices: What Choices Are You Making? Are They Serving You Well?

“The key to accepting responsibility for your life is to accept the fact that your choices, every one of them, are leading you inexorably to either success or failure, however you define those terms.” - Neal Boortz, American journalist

“In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” - Eleanor Roosevelt, American First Lady

I love this time of year because of the enthusiasm for making resolutions (I call them goals), stating intentions and another winning approach is making promises to ourselves. The unfortunate truth is that many of the resolutions, goals, intentions and promises have already been broken or are falling by the wayside (forgive the cliché).

It all results from the choices we make and are making. If we have heard it once, we have been inundated by the statement that we are exactly where we are today because of the choices we have made in the past - and everyday brings us a plethora of choices. Choices about what to eat, what to spend, what to read and/or study, what to concentrate on, what to think, what to work on, what excuses to believe, and on and on.

Yes, I do believe that my choices set the tone and direction of my life. But, don’t take it from me. Let’s visit the experts.

General quotations about choices:

• “You and I are essentially infinite choice-makers. In every moment of our existence, we are in that field of all possibilities where we have access to an infinity of choices.” - Deepak Chopra, philosopher
• “There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” - Denis Waitley, American writer
• “Our lives are a sum total of the choices we have made.” - Wayne Dyer, American psychologist
• “Every person has free choice. Free to obey or disobey the Natural Laws. Your choice determines the consequences. Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.” - Alfred A. Montapert, American author

How about a twist, with a bit of humor thrown in?

• “As a child my family's menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it.” - Buddy Hackett, American comedian
• “Women now have choices. They can be married, not married, have a job, not have a job, be married with children, unmarried with children. Men have the same choice we've always had: work, or prison.” - Tim Allen, American comedian

A different way to consider choices:

• “I think we too often make choices based on the safety of cynicism, and what we're lead to is a life not fully lived. Cynicism is fear, and it's worse than fear - it's active disengagement.” - Ken Burns, American director
• “There are definitely more choices today, but there are also more tools - such as warning labels on music, ratings, and the V-chip for television.” - Tipper Gore, American celebrity
• “You go to LA, or you go to New York, and it's really fun to go there. But they're not grounded. Everybody is just competing all the time for the limelight. It's too much entertainment industry. There are too many choices. And it's distracting to me.” - Bob Seger, American musician
• “A narrative is like a room on whose walls a number of false doors have been painted; while within the narrative, we have many apparent choices of exit, but when the author leads us to one particular door, we know it is the right one because it opens.” - John Updike, American novelist

I do want you to know that even though some of our current situations have resulted from unfortunate choices made in the past, the good news is that we can change those circumstances with new and better choices.

So here are a couple of quotations to serve you well this coming week:

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

“There's a need for accepting responsibility - for a person's life and making choices that are not just ones for immediate short-term comfort. You need to make an investment, and the investment is in health and education.” - Buzz Aldrin, American astronaut

What choices are you making? What has worked for you? I would love to hear from you.