3.
Understanding the importance of choice
NOTE:
This is an excerpt from the book The
Least You Should Know About Life.
The main message of all true self-help and spiritual teachers is, “YOU
CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE!” Yet what does it take to change your life?
Albert Einstein said: “Insanity is when you keep doing the same
thing and expect a different result.” If your life is to change,
something must change. If you keep doing the same thing, how likely
is it that your life will change by itself?
There are two basic approaches to life. There are those who keep doing
the same thing, always living in the dream that some day a stroke of
luck, fate, magic or divine intervention will change their lives. There
are those who realize that if their lives are to change, they must actively
do something different to bring about change. They must begin by changing
that which they have the power to change.
All true spiritual teachers talk about the eternal law that you cannot
change your life without changing yourself. To change your outer situation,
you must be willing to start by changing your inner situation. You must
be willing to look in the mirror. You must be willing to look for –
and remove – the beam in your own eye.
To change your life, you must understand the power of free will. You
must choose change over stillstand. You must choose growth over comfortability.
You must choose life over death. Life is all about choice. Life is a
process of making choices, and only you can make the decisions that
will change your life.
You are constantly choosing, and you can never turn off the responsibility
of making choices. You can stop making decisions, but to do so you must
make a decision. You can allow other people or institutions to make
decisions for you, but to do so you must make a decision. And you can
uphold this state only by continuing to make the decision not to make
decisions.
Deciding not to make decisions puts you in a state of being spiritually
dead. You can remain physically alive while being spiritually dead.
You cannot remain spiritually alive without making choices. Life is
a choice. Life is the choice to be more. Death is the choice to be less.
If you do not consciously choose life, you have unconsciously chosen
death.
Choices are not made in a vacuum. All choices have consequences. Being
spiritually dead does not make you unconscious. Thus, it does not prevent
you from experiencing the consequences of your life choices—regardless
of who makes those choices. The equation is simple. Either you make
your own choices or you allow someone or something to make choices for
you. In either case, you are the one who must live with the consequences.
Only by making your own decisions can you influence the consequences.
There are two types of consequences. Some consequences limit you and
have a negative impact on your life experience. Some consequences liberate
you and enhance your life experience. Consequences either make your
life experience less or they make it more.
Limiting consequences are the results of choices that are based on incomplete
or incorrect knowledge. Liberating consequences are based on full understanding.
The truth will set you free to be more. Lack of truth will limit you
and turn your life into a struggle.
Change must start with a desire to change, and the equation is simple.
You must desire change so much that you are willing to reach for a higher
understanding in order to bring about that change. What will it take
to bring you to that point? It might help to know your options.
4.
Understanding your options in life
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Copyright
© 2007 by Kim Michaels |
