The Choices We Make
Posted Aug 2, 2009 at 01:50 AM by shinycoin
Have you noticed that sometimes, indeed most times, the choices we make could either make or break us?
Our life choices could either hold us back for good or propel us to greater heights.
only recently i was reading about the life and times of the late Michael Jackson. The friends and advisers he had, the hangers on that were around him and his endless, but elusive pursuit for perfection. I was wondering if he had had a better set of friends and advisers, if he would still be alive and well today, very rich and basking in the glory and luxury of his immense wealth and hard work.
He made some pretty poor choices during his life time and those choices haunted him to his dying days.
We make choices everyday, some smart, some not very smart, ranging from career choices to the choice of a life partner, deciding who our friends are, to deciding what to do with the money we earn.
And yet... yet, what determines the choices we make? what factors do we consider before we take decisions? what variables come into play?
My woman asked me the other day why i chose her to stay in a committed, monogamous relationship with? She used to see me with several other beautiful women, my cell phone had countless numbers of female names and yet i chose her and am introducing her to my friends and family. It all boiled down to my making a choice between her and the many other contending women.
choices are hard to make sometimes, other times we do not even have a say in the matter.
Has a decision ever been taken out of your hands and you were forced to settle on something you wouldn't have?
Friend of mine had to marry a woman he got pregnant the other day and he has lived in misery ever since.
What have you done in the past that if given another chance, you would do different? Am sure we all wish sometimes that we could turn back the hands of time and make different choices.
Success and failure in life are oftentimes the result of our choices. Of course there is also fate, luck, destiny and some such variables we cannot control or manipulate, but how much of your life style today was a direct result of the earlier choices you made in life?
What, if anything would you change, if given the chance?
Our life choices could either hold us back for good or propel us to greater heights.
only recently i was reading about the life and times of the late Michael Jackson. The friends and advisers he had, the hangers on that were around him and his endless, but elusive pursuit for perfection. I was wondering if he had had a better set of friends and advisers, if he would still be alive and well today, very rich and basking in the glory and luxury of his immense wealth and hard work.
He made some pretty poor choices during his life time and those choices haunted him to his dying days.
We make choices everyday, some smart, some not very smart, ranging from career choices to the choice of a life partner, deciding who our friends are, to deciding what to do with the money we earn.
And yet... yet, what determines the choices we make? what factors do we consider before we take decisions? what variables come into play?
My woman asked me the other day why i chose her to stay in a committed, monogamous relationship with? She used to see me with several other beautiful women, my cell phone had countless numbers of female names and yet i chose her and am introducing her to my friends and family. It all boiled down to my making a choice between her and the many other contending women.
choices are hard to make sometimes, other times we do not even have a say in the matter.
Has a decision ever been taken out of your hands and you were forced to settle on something you wouldn't have?
Friend of mine had to marry a woman he got pregnant the other day and he has lived in misery ever since.
What have you done in the past that if given another chance, you would do different? Am sure we all wish sometimes that we could turn back the hands of time and make different choices.
Success and failure in life are oftentimes the result of our choices. Of course there is also fate, luck, destiny and some such variables we cannot control or manipulate, but how much of your life style today was a direct result of the earlier choices you made in life?
What, if anything would you change, if given the chance?
Total Comments 7
Comments
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SC,
It's interesting to wonder what might have been, but I don't spend too much time thinking about it. The choices I make at any given time are the only choices I could have made, given my circumstances, my knowledge and my mental and emotional state at the time.
In any event, it's possible that if I had taken step A, I would have avoided bad event B - but who is to say as a result of not taking step A, I might not have ended up meeting evil person C?
This doesn't mean that there aren't some options that are obviously better than others. I can't imagine that a person who lives in a hellish warzone would not have preferred to be born in a peaceful and prosperous country. But (as you yourself note), that is really an option that is out of his hands.Posted Aug 2, 2009 at 02:12 AM by Shoko Loko Bangoshe
- I agree with you Shoko, but then again we may also ask: how many of our choices and decisions were based on poor judgment, youthful exuberance and the tendency to follow the bandwagon?, so that several years down the line, we look back and wished we had been a bit more cautious, a bit less trusting, a bit more patient and consulted a bit wider?
Remember, its because of our history that we understand our present and plan for our future!Posted Aug 2, 2009 at 02:34 AM by shinycoin 
- I try my best to finish each day and be done with it...knowing deep in myself that whatever choices I've made were the best for me in the circumstances.
Mistakes and bad choices happen but they are a part of the growing process. Beating myself over the head or constantly second-guessing myself about the past won't cut it.
I'm learning to make peace with the past, though that's not as easy as it sounds.Posted Aug 3, 2009 at 06:50 PM by Juno - we do make some rather poor choices, especially in youth.
in my younger days, i made some rather bad choices, hung out with the wrong set of people, got diverted on my career path, and am still paying the price today.
Given the chance, i would do several things different, one of which would have been to start a family earlier, when i had the opportunity.Posted Aug 3, 2009 at 07:18 PM by Anthonia - Quote:Originally Posted by Juno
I try my best to finish each day and be done with it...knowing deep in myself that whatever choices I've made were the best for me in the circumstances.
Mistakes and bad choices happen but they are a part of the growing process. Beating myself over the head or constantly second-guessing myself about the past won't cut it.
I'm learning to make peace with the past, though that's not as easy as it sounds.
Well said by you and Shoko.
Shinycoin, recognize man!
Auspy.Posted Aug 4, 2009 at 06:15 AM by Auspicious - Evaluating one's past choices is key to better decision making.
It means reaching deeply into your experience to help further chart your future. From a scientific frame of reference, choices come with their risks. The risks explain the failures that come with each decision. For once, accessing your options means seeing yourself in clear terms - sometimes it is not easy to peep into reality of yourself.
It does have benefits that come in terms of useful information.For example, examining past choices of what to produce and how to meet the tastes of consumers is what Japanese car manufacturers brought to the automobile market. Through quality control, and done through research and statistical evidence, they understood the past in terms of choices made and what to do in future to meet consumer expectations.
The unique principle here is evaluation. When you evaluate you notice a pattern, thinking pattern that could be habitual, emotional pattern that could be habitual, taste pattern that could be habitual. Then, the question is what feeds or informs these patterns?
So in a sense, when you mention choices, you are talking about decision making. How do you make those decisions ? Is it from a position of strength - that is researching your biases and trying to avoid them in the most objective manner; does it mean it mean recognising your ignorance and trying to acquire information to purge you of them? Are you making decisions on the basis of reality?
It is important that man does well in his choice making. It explains the reasons why in ancient times and till today people employ the services of soothsayers, it is the reason probability emerged to predict occurrences.It is the stuff of modern man to evaluate his options, I mean his choices.
If there are tools that can make you make better decisions, why not?Posted Aug 4, 2009 at 06:40 PM by katampe - @ Katampe,
my broda, that's an excellent analysis of the choices we make and the implications of choices and what role they play in our lives.
@ Juno,
its the right idea to make peace with the past and move, not to let the past haunt you, but one should also learn from one's past and improve on the choices one made yesterday for a better rosier tomorrow.
@ Auspy,
my broda Auspy, i recognize, i recognize big time. Thanks for visiting.Posted Aug 4, 2009 at 06:46 PM by shinycoin
