Choices

Everyone has a choice. Young. Old. Rich. Poor. We all have a choice. Sometimes we like our choices. Sometimes we don't. Either way, the choices we make are our own. Often external factors influence our choices, in the end we are left with making a decision. Occasionally our choices are limited or unsatisfactory, however we are still responsibility for making them, regardless of whether we like or dislike them. This was another one of my TEFL topics today and it made me think about some of the choices I have made.

Then comes the issue of good and bad choices. Is there such a thing? Or does each choice inevitably lead us towards the same direction and destination just via a slightly different path? I'm not an expert so I'm not sure, but what I like to believe that is if we want to achieve something, the choices we make along the way are extremely important.

Today I made the choice to get up, go to work and teach all day. I also made the choice to do more work and write for this blog late at night when I should be going to sleep. Why did I make these choices? Probably because no one is going to do these things for me. If I wanted the standard of living I have, it's necessary for me to do this. If I want to achieve my goals, I have to do these things. Result? Job satisfaction, money, one step closer to achieving my goals.

On the other hand I could have not gotten out of bed and decided it was much more pleasurable to stay under the warm duvet and forget about work. I could have spent the day in front of the television, drinking or eating too much or simply not doing anything at all. The choice was mine. Result? Possibility of job loss, less money, a backwards move.

Obviously, each choice would come with a consequence. This consequence could have dramatic effects on my life, as it can on yours, thinking about the consequences I was able to make the choice that would have the more positive result.

Our circumstances do influence the choices we have to make. However, we can always change our situations in order to have a different set of choices. Certain individuals choose to work hard and keep going until they succeed, while others give up and think it's all too hard before they've even tested the playing field. That's why they say that the only difference between the published writers and the unpublished ones, is that the published are those who never gave up and chose to persevere. I'm going to choose the same. How about you?