…That the focus is on choice?
There is nothing more frustrating than the realization that whatever you may be complaining about is rooted in the choices you’ve made.
Let me elaborate: Today I was reading a horoscope that told me that I must focus. In it was the following analogy:
One person works long hours, expends a great deal of energy, feels unable to take time off and expects to remain in such a situation for years to come. Another person does – and feels – precisely the same. But the first person is deeply dedicated to a project or plan. The second one is a prisoner who has been sentenced to hard labor. Here’s the difference between the two individuals in one word. Choice.
Thank you, Jonathan Cainer.
I work a lot. I work many hours and I am forever fighting the fight of balance in life. The scales have a tendency to tip in the direction of the career and job and I find myself allowing the slight disintegration of personal commitments and outside activities as a result. Truthfully the greatest percentage of the time there is balance. Beyond that the greatest percentage of the imbalanced time is something I do not necessarily mind. My mistake and habit is to take the times that I work too much and would prefer a little space and time as an imposition on my balance and life. This creates inward resentment and a “victimization” that is fodder for many a journal page.
The bottom line, however, is that there is nobody to blame for these resentments but myself. I have chosen to work and receive the paycheck that affords me the home, the travel and the things that I have and do. I could just as easily choose to say “no” when I am asked (or told) to do something that eats away at hours that I would otherwise consider mine… thus providing an imbalance. I could choose to not work at all if that were something that I wanted.
Starting to get the frustration part of the entry?
So it has become a very obvious to me that an old adage that I had been told many years ago remains true. There really are no “wrong” decisions or choices in this life. There are only the results and / or consequences of these decisions or choices. The resentments that I feel will only come out of the environment or overwhelm that I am feeling. People can push buttons, too much work can cause stress and fatigue. We are humans and humans are fallible in every way possible. When I complain, whether out loud or on the pages of a journal it is a release of stress… much like exercise or other forms of release. it is important to allow the tensions of the world around you to work themselves out. Bottled up energies built in any degree (little by little or a lot in a short amount of time) have the potential of blowing up in ways that may be uncharacteristic to our REAL personality.
I have been ultra-aware of my reactions to the world for months now. I have learned over and over that I am a better person when I do not allow the world to govern me… but instead, by stopping, thinking and breathing I am able to better govern it… and not in a sense of control… just the aforementioned awareness.
That is my choice. Working is my choice. Eating my meals is my choice. Getting out of bed in the morning and returning back to it at night are my choice. Pretty much everything I do is based on choice… and habit (which was built from choice). If I am choosing to do something and I am complaining about it it is my option to choose NOT to do it. If I choose not to do something that I am complaining about I must remember that there are ramifications and results that will follow. Invariably I will find myself either accepting those or complaining. Life is cyclical and nowhere near perfect. Perhaps some choices are easier than others. Sometimes we feel we have “no choice”… but that is usually and invariably a statement made out of the fear of what we feel would be the consequence should we make the choice not to do what we think we must.
So basically it is another exercise in reality. All it tends to do for me is stroke the curiosity gene. What if I were to make this choice or that one? What would be the consequence? How would the path change? How do I know that I could find a happier and more genuine life if I were to step out of what I think I am supposed to be doing in order to pursue what I really want. If I let go of the baggage that is tied to the result… it becomes quite a smile-inducing thought.
This is about letting go. But isn’t everything in the end?
Be Happy. Be Well. Be.