The Choices We Make
Issue #28
Everything we do in life is a choice, and we need to take responsibility for our actions and not blame others. The challenge is to make the right choices or at least to make choices. When I graduated from college, I was afraid to choose a direction for my life. I didn't know what I wanted to do. If I went down the wrong path, it could be a disaster.Â
What I have learned is that the choices I made have led me where I need to be. The challenge is to choose. If you keep choosing, you will eventually end up where you are supposed to be. If you don't choose and instead let life happen, you may end up where you don't want to be.
Many people blame others for the circumstances in which they find themselves. They are what I call "IF ONLY THINKERS." They preface everything with the phrase: if only. If only I had more money. If only I had a college education. If only my boss liked me. If only I had better parents. If only...If only...If only...
Usually, we only have a short time to decide before the door closes and the opportunity passes. Sometimes, the opportunity will come around again; other times, it won't. I once had an opportunity to work for a trade magazine but turned it down because I was happy with my job. And the opportunity to work for a trade journal never came around again. I sent out resumes, but no one responded. I don't know how my life would have changed if I had accepted the position, but I have no regrets. I am satisfied with the life I have lived.
The choices we make often send us in directions we never imagined. Four years out of college, I was offered a job as a writer of policy and procedure manuals for a healthcare company. I thought I would have the job for a few years and move on to another industry. I spent 40 years working in healthcare.
New opportunities arise for us to seize. Each choice we make leads us closer to where we are supposed to be. We make a life by making choices. What choices are you making today that will open new doors for you tomorrow?
When we are young, we have many dreams of what we want to do with our lives. When I was in junior high, I wanted to be an architect. Â My father was a general contractor and built over 300 houses in his lifetime, so I am sure that influenced my dream. Â
In recent years, I remembered my desire to draw as a child, which no one encouraged. When I was a sophomore in high school, I committed to be a minister. By the time I was a senior in high school, I had lost my faith in religion. In college, I dreamed of being a writer. My life may not have turned out as I imagined, but it turned out even better, and I became what I needed to be.
I have spent more than 50 years writing poetry and short stories. Â I have published 14 books and hundreds of poems. Â I have spent over 30 years as a motivational speaker (ministry), touching people's hearts and souls. Â And now, late in my life, I have turned to abstract drawing. Â I know I ended up where I needed to be and did what I needed to do.
I believe that we are all here on this earth to learn lessons and grow. Â Everything that happens to us will teach us valuable lessons. Â Our choices will lead us down the roads we need to travel. Â We will arrive where we are meant to be, having learned the lessons we were meant to learn.
Opus #14
Be Sure to Plant Seeds of Hope in the Hearts of Others!
I agree: everything we do in involves a choice. Looking back, I can see I got to make some choices while others were made for me. One choice always led to another. Some were good choices (my wife, my first job, to start a family, to move to MN.) Other choices were not so good. (I'll spare you the details.) BTW, I took a job (or rather got an assignment - I was in the Air Force) as a project manager. Everything I did for the next 40 years involved project management, the last 5 years of which was in the medical device industry.