The Illusion Of (No) Choice

You wake to routines that numb you.

You stumble to the kitchen for your morning hit of sugary-something.

You smile with your mouth at the kids as they walk blinking to the table, your eyes blank.

You dress for work, slack-faced to the mirror, preparing again to offer yourself in daily sacrifice upon the altar.

“Choices.”

A word that no longer sparks anything in you.

You *know* that choices are the key to creating a better life.

But when it comes to actually pulling the trigger… to actually making game-changing choices… there are so many compelling reasons why you in fact “can not.”

“I can’t move to a different state because all our friends and family are here.”

“I can’t work from home because my company has a strict no-telecommuting policy.”

“I can’t start a business because I’m in debt and don’t have the capital.”

In short, you come to believe that choice is an illusion…

…that the “freedom to choose” the life you want is a theoretically plausibility but a practical impossibility.

Let me say this:

If you do not learn to make hard choices…

If you do not learn to claim this freedom upon which all other freedoms depend… then you will live, for all “practical” purposes, a slave.

A well-fed, well-educated slave, but a slave no less.

For freedom is not granted.

Freedom is not self-unfolding.

You have to CLAIM IT.

You may have the matches and the paper and the wood, but if you do not have the will to put them together and make a fire… you will go on shivering in the dark.

No one will take the choices inherent in your day, bundle them up, and create a life of freedom, power, and joy for you.

No one will make the fire for you.

You must find a way to do it for and by yourself.

Begin by finding the choice in everything:

When you wake up: that is a choice.

The house (or cabin, or RV, or castle, or VW) you live in: that is a choice.

What you say, and how you say it to you wife and kids upon waking: that is a choice.

What you eat, whether it be pre-packaged shit-food or the real thing: that is a choice.

What projects you put your precious time and heart into: that is a choice.

Choice: it is the oxygen your better life feeds on, and it is everywhere.

Have the eyes to wake each morning to a thousand choices…

A thousand keys to the free life you want.

All you need is the courage to choose, and the will to to fit the key to the lock.

Comments

  1. Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. – Viktor E. Frankl

  2. Why is it we setup the “reasons” that we “can’t” or can not affect changes in our lives? This is the real question is it not? If we believe something possible or not, then inherently it is or it isn’t. As you say it is a choice in what you do, or say, or act. Choose to believe in the possibility for a happier life and it becomes available to be reality.

  3. I choose, today, on January 1, 2017, to sing more, exercise more, eat more raw food, be more of an inspiration to my wife and child, and take my business to the next level. I will keep records of all my activities, especially diet and exercise, and make observation notes along the way.

  4. Toby Cloninger says

    I recently lost my family step children ok my children. It’s been two weeks. I’d been writing inspiring encouraging. For the last 3 months. I’m about ready to release my short book. I want my family back. I feel into exactly what bryan ward did a couple years ago. He has my story pretty much other then I lost. I want them back I made wonderful changes the last 6 months but I see its too late. But spiritually I keep getting pushed back to them. My daughters so mad at me and my son is lost. My wife has a hard time forgiving torn between the daughter and I. Most of the reason I was told to leave. If I could get through to my daughter theyes hope. She mentioned our families seemed to be so separated. I think I gather all the family rejoice and suprise them with all families showing there love. Thoughts. This is where I’ve been givent spiritually. Toby.

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