Gayle H“Choice, not circumstances, determines your success.” ~Anonymous
Have you ever stopped to consider how many choices you make in a day?
When will you get out of bed? (Or even WILL you get out of bed).
What will you wear?
Will you eat breakfast? If yes, what will you have for breakfast?
Will you stop for a coffee at Starbucks before hitting the office?
When will you officially ‘open for business’?
And that’s all within the first hour of waking up!
Our lives have been, are, and will continue to be a series of choices.
Sure, circumstances arise despite your best choices.
House repairs.
Auto breakdowns.
The weather.
But for the most part, your life is built on the choices you make. Agreed?
It is easy to lose sight of the fact that we have the power to make choices. Our daily grinds, demanding bosses and constant connectedness tend to deplete our energetic power of choice; until we become the victim of circumstances.
Choosing something different would be hard, not popular or potentially scary. It is much easier to simply complain, stress out, overwork ourselves, and go with the flow.
“If you chose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” (one of my favorite lines from RUSH’s Freewill. Yes, I’m a huge RUSH fan.)
So how do we reclaim the power of choice, specifically those choices that impact our overall health? Let’s consider some of our daily ‘circumstances’, and review the choices we have at our disposal to move ourselves from victim to hero.
Circumstance: Team Dinners/Client Dinners/Work Dinners/Dinner at Home
Choices: What to eat, how much to eat, what to drink, how much to drink. Though the choice to go to a team/client/work dinner may be out of our hands, we can control what we eat, drink and how long we stay – making staying in good health something that is still in your control.
Circumstance: A crazy busy schedule – no time for exercise.
Choice: I would be remiss to point out that your schedule IS your choice, but let’s ease into that one. Taking the stairs, taking a call while walking, waking up five minutes earlier to stretch and do 10 squats, 10 push ups, and 10 sit ups. These are all very easy actions – funny how the choice to do them is so difficult.
Circumstance: Needing to be responsive to work 24/7.
Choice: Again, a great place to point out that your schedule IS your choice, but acknowledge that schedule changing is advanced choice making. So, we’ll stay basic. No one, not even the worst boss you can think of, expects you to be responsive 24/7. (Even they need to sleep, even if just for a few hours). What people want is for you to be responsive. Choose to be responsive during a more manageable window of time, and practice choosing to shut down at a reasonable hour. You can pick up being responsive the next morning. Choose to believe that you do not need to respond to everyone according to their expectations.
Choosing the path of most resistance is a hard choice. But, similar to choosing to eat well, move your body more or get enough sleep, the more you exercise your ability to choose, the better you get and the easier chosing the right path becomes.
If You Do Nothing Else…
Find one thing/person/situation/circumstance in your day that is causing you stress and see if you can make a choice to change your approach to that stressor. If you want some help, email me – we can work on it together.
Gayle H
