You never realize how much a word encompasses until you try to live it.  Choice.  Every second of every day there are choices to make.  When you choose to get up in the morning, the routines/habits you choose (or not), what and when you choose to eat, which route you choose to take to work each day – you get my point.  So, choosing the word “Choice” as a focus for life this year, has made me very aware of the impact one word can have.

Choices lead to transitions.  I have chosen to adjust my work situation. Attempting to do two different jobs well at the same time hasn’t worked for me.  Reminds me of the two times I attempted to teach K-12.  K-5 was great, 6-12 was a disaster.  I heard someone say that sometimes you complete a project by dropping it.  For me it feels a bit like quitting, but I’ve done life long enough to know that if it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.  So you make a choice because life it too short to continue doing something that you don’t look forward to or stress about.  And sometimes, we keep things from progressing or keep people from their next steps by choosing to stay with something when we shouldn’t.  

Making choices leads to having to make more choices.  This week an opportunity presented itself.  I had asked for some guidance and it presented itself loud and clear.  It’s do-able but it’s new and different, an unknown and therefore scary.  However, this one choice could positively affect other choices in the future.  Making choices sometimes means taking chances.  It’s not that you can’t learn from your choices, whether your choices turn out to be good or bad, but you hope that the choice leads you in a forward direction, takes you to the next adventure or at the very least allows you to learn something you can use later.  In this case choosing to trust someone I know who I believe can help me move in that forward direction.

Which leads me to the fact that choices, a lot of times, means you have to trust someone.  As much as I would love to only have to trust myself, sometimes I have to reach out to others for help in taking the next steps.  As an introvert, I try to avoid bothering others and I dislike asking for help.  I blame my parents.  But I digress.  So, if I’m asking for your help, know that I’m stepping way out of my comfort zone and choosing to take a next step which includes you, hoping that you will choose to help me in my next adventure.

Choices are never made in a vacuum and they always have an effect on others, sometimes small, sometimes large, sometimes causing an inconvenience, sometimes causing others to make choices they may or may not want to.  My choice to adjust my work affects my spouse, our budget, the people I’ve been working for, and the direction of someone who will take my place. Every choice has an effect on me and possibly numerous others, and therefore I have to really sit back and contemplate who these choices affect besides myself, then decide what I can do to make the transition for all involved as easy as possible.  

For those of you who know me, you may question all the choices and changes I make, but there are many things that I’ve learned over the years, the most important being I don’t want to get to the end of my life wishing I had done something differently or done something, period.  In order to do that, I have to make choices.  So many of us look at people who seem to do things differently and have the greatest adventures and we wish we could be like them.  It’s all about making choices.  In some cases, it may be something spontaneous and in others it may take some planning and again, asking for help, but it ultimately goes back to the individual making a conscious choice to step out and go in another direction and being willing to take the steps or make the sacrifices to make it happen.  

Obviously, we make major and minor choices all day every day and I don’t mean to make light of those major life decisions we all have to make that completely change the trajectory of our lives – the choice of a life partner or not, to have/foster/adopt a child or not, to take in a parent or not, to say goodbye or not.  But I do believe we have to trust our gut to know if what we’re having to choose feels right for us and consider the effect on others when we make those choices. 

You made the choice to take the time to read this blog today.  What does that mean, if anything, and will it cause you to make a choice about something important in your life?  I made the choice to write about this to communicate with those of you who need to hear it and to encourage myself to make the choice to ask some people for help, that choice possibly affecting others.  What will you choose to do or not do today?