Choices

Quote of the Day

"Happiness is a choice that requires effort at all times." –Aeschylus

Choices

Recently someone told me "there is always a choice." She was talking about something inconsequential, but I started to really think about her words.

Is there always a real choice? Or in some cases, is the choice not really a choice at all?

On the surface, yes, there is always a choice. But choices have consequences, and for many people the consequences are what get weighed, not the choices themselves.

For example, you have a choice to go to work or not. But the consequences of not having a paycheck and a roof over your head may outweigh the tedium of a dead-end job. You have a choice what food to put in your body. But for some people the choice is not between organic beans or organic peas, but rather between whatever items a single dollar may provide.

Sometimes the choice may not really be a choice. Sometimes it is about rocks and hard places.

And so how do we get to the point of having real choices? That takes work.

A few years ago I was dissatisfied as I was with my job as an IT consultant, and I went back to school to get my teaching license for high school math. After one year in the classroom, I am back doing the same job for the same company I worked with before.

Before my teaching, I felt cornered and hopeless. But now I have a choice. At any point I could go back to teaching, which is my choice held in reserve. So every day I go to work, and I am conscious of a very real choice that I have as to how I make my living.

The same holds true for productivity. "Experts" will tell you that productivity is a matter of choices. But when the choice is taking care of your hungry children versus working toward a long-held dream, is it truly a choice?

In order to make those choices, one has to have the real choices to make. If the choice is between watching a re-run of a show you have seen several times or taking the next step to make your dream reality, that is a true choice. We have to work to the point where we have true choices to make.

Not all choices are created equal.