This weeks Wisdom Wednesday made me think deeper about the topic of choice.  Choices are a part of our daily lives.  We have simple choices like our flavor of coffee and what we will wear to the complex choices around our career and family.  We have so many choices in a day that we don’t think anything of it.

When life is going well, we applaud ourselves for our hard work and the sound choices that brought us to our successful place.  However, when things go south, we wonder what external force decided to turn on us.  If we acknowledge that our choices get us to great places in life, we must ultimately acknowledge that our choices can sometimes take us to places of suffering too.  No one wants to suffer or struggle, but it’s a part of life.  It is in the moments of suffering and struggle that we come across our greatest lessons.  (If it weren’t for struggle we would not appreciate the things we have in the moments when life is good.)  Some people have grown so accustomed to suffering and struggle that they find it hard to remember what it feels like to feel good, hope, love and dream.

Sometimes or perhaps many times, our hardest moments occur for us to pay closer attention to an aspect of our life.  There are a handful of people who I know that have been so unhappy for years, that they don’t remember the last time they were happy.  It’s in the moments when we feel like we can’t go on and wonder if this is as good as it gets, that we need to look deeper within our lives and within ourselves.

Life’s greatest choices are the leaps of faith that we need to take, when we don’t know what else to do.  Or better stated, they are the choices we need to make but are many times afraid to make.  Like when we choose to break-up with a live in boyfriend or girlfriend, because something doesn’t feel right and no matter how many times you tried to make it work, its making the choice to see that you aren’t right for each other.  There is also the many people I know that are working on their second career because their first career was too demanding and they want to start a family.  In the moments when we are in a good place, but life has lost its meaning, isn’t fulfilling or no longer brings happiness… we have the choice stay in the life that is draining us or choose again.  It is scary to make these choices because we may not want to admit that we care a little too much about the judgements of others.  It is scary to make these choices also because once you open one door, you open a flood of possibility and can end up far away from your comfort zone.  But when you find yourself on an undesired path, you can always choose again.  What choice will you make?  Is your happiness and well-being worth it?  Are you worth it?

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