Life is a Choice

Every day, every minute, every second we are making choices. Are your choices governed by a plan or by randomness? Do you know where you are going or are you just going? What do you want from life? Money, power and love are three of the prevailing themes used to answer this question.

The living of life can be compared to driving a car. Some people don't really know where they want to go and drive around aimlessly waiting for something to happen. Some start out with a purpose, but get sidetracked along the way. Others drive with a purpose. They know where they are going, have mapped the way in advance and set out with a goal in mind.

I believe each of us has a choice a how we live our lives; a choice on how we react to life events; a choice on how we think.  These are things that we truly control in our lives.  There is not much else we can control, except ourselves.  We can try to control others or our situations, but these are not ours to control.

No matter what you believe, you are making choices every second of every day.  You can choose to be positive, negative or apathetic.  The healthy choice is positive.  Positive thoughts will lead to optimism.  Negative thoughts lead to pessimism.  Apathy leads to indifference.

Everyone makes the choices they can live with...all goals are different. My goal is eternal life. This goal is what I base my choices on. I know to many this is an unrealistic goal. Others know that everyone gets eternal life, it's just which side of the fence you are on. For those who think it all ends with death, read The Sandman's hub The Need to Believe and realize we are, each of us, energy.

Energy cannot be made or destroyed, it can only be changed. Upon death our energy is not destroyed, it is changed. We are conscious creatures...is the consciousness part of the energy, or is it entirely organic? I believe our consciousness is part of the energy. All thought, all feeling, all memory is tied up in those little gaps, the synapses of the mind. The place of the continual uptake and re-uptake of electrical impulses and neurotransmitters.

What type of energy will you add to the world? Will your energy contribute to the good energy? If your goal is money or power, be very careful. You may lose yourself during your journey. People will pull you in different ways. Do not let them pull you so far that you lose who you are. One compromise may lead to another and another, until you have forgotten how you began. You lose your personal compass and begin down a different road.

You began your journey with a goal in sight, but became sidetracked on the way. You look around one day and ask, "how did I get here?" You are no longer the person you wanted to be. You have lost your personal integrity, modifying it over time to fit your needs and wants. When you realize this, it is time to re-evaluate your life. Ask yourself, "am I in charge of my destiny, or am I just going along for the ride."

What is personal integrity? RKHenry has written a great hub on personal integrity. Read it to understand how personal integrity makes us complete and keeps us on the correct road in our journey. Personal integrity is the GPS unit on our journey in life. It will guide us on our journey and warn us if we are about to make a wrong turn.

How many movies do you know of that end with the bad guy winning? Don't include all those horror movies trying for a sequel and how many are left? Not very many. Why is it that people want the good guy to win? Why do we love a movie (or book) where good triumphs over evil? Who decides what is good and what is evil.

Society and culture attempt to clarify good and evil. Society clarifies by interpreting these concepts into law. Culture defines the etiquette and the actions. Religion is crowded with the concept of good and evil. However, good and evil are very personal concepts. What is good for one may be evil for another. Some cultures consider a belch after a good meal to be good manners. Other cultures consider it the height of bad manners.

Each of us has to define what is good and what is not. We must decide how we want to live and where we want to go. We need to consciously think about our actions and our words to ensure we give off the correct energy. We must control our lives, not just react to what is going on around us. We must choose how we want to live.

A long time ago, I decided I wanted to show love through my living. I believe love to be the best of the good things in this world. I wanted my energy to be love. I try to live my life by the following rule:

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Corinthians 13)

This is the energy I want to add to the world. This is what I do to decrease the bad energy in the world. I believe that each of our actions will add good, or bad, energy. I also believe that unless you actively try to spread good, it will contribute to the bad. Even doing nothing, neither good nor bad, is a choice...a choice not to do good.

Life is a choice.  We can choose to have control over our lives.  Control your journey by having a goal in mind and being conscious of the energy you give off.  Do not let others guide your journey.  Action, not reaction, is the key to controlling your life.  There is no conscious thought involved when reaction happens.  We need to think first and act second. 

No one can “make you feel” anything unless you give them the power to.  No one can “make you do” anything unless you choose to do it.  At times we all feel as if there is no choice, but there always is.  It all depends on what you are willing to lose.  Are you willing to lose yourself to gain power or money?  It is your choice.