Decisions.

Have you ever heard the saying: "You are always only one decision away from a totally different life"

Of course in theory we know this, but how bizarre does it seem when you say it out loud? It's almost scary to think that all the minor decisions we make on a daily basis add up to make a whole lifetime. I don't know about you, but every time I hear this quote, I think about ALL of the decisions I've made in the past 24 hours alone and how they may have affected my current state - and I mean ALL of the decisions (well as many as I can remember) - just as a reference, according to Cambridge, the definition of the word "Decision" is; a choice that you make about something after thinking about several possibilities. So I start thinking about my outfit choice for the day, what I chose to have for breakfast, the route I decided to take to work, what I chose to eat for lunch, what time I decided to wake up etc...

Then I realise, an adjustment to any one of these decisions could have altered my life - for better or for worse. The purpose of this post is not to cause massive ques in your local Starbucks or McDonalds with everyone stressing about a plethora of options, but at the same time, I do think it is important for us to slow down and make our choices wisely. Of course we have no idea what the next 2 minutes of our lives are going to look like. We can plan every second of our existence until the cows come home and then life happens and eats those plans for breakfast (or lunch or whatever). 

However, we can control some of the decisions we have to make by sometimes foreseeing the most likely outcome. It will always baffle me, why people who are lactose intolerant choose to eat dairy based products - it fascinates me. This leads me onto my next point - it's not enough just to make these decisions, but we must know why we are making them, as long as we know why, nothing else matters. The Lactose Intolerant Milkshake drinkers may have a valid reason for doing so and this is none of my business (unless I have to deal with the aftermath if you know what I mean...). Most people going into Starbucks in the morning before work have a reason for doing so - coffee to keep me awake, tea to keep me warm, hot chocolate for a sugar fix etc. All fine. But there are people who go into Starbucks and buy a hot drink everyday, routinely...just because. If you ask them why, you get: "I don't know you know...". Ok...

When we are doing things and we don't know why we're doing it, I must admit it seems a bit strange. Even I have sometimes made a random decision that in no way meets my general decision making criteria and have had to ask myself..."Sach, what are you doing?" If you ask yourself this question and you don't have an answer then...yeah, what are you actually doing? 

I close with a challenge. Try thinking about the small decisions you make regularly and how they affect your life (if at all). Try making a few adjustments to the things that don't make sense and see if that has any impact (good or bad). Also think about any STUPID decisions you may have made last year and how you plan to make sure these STUPID decisions don't cross over into this year. I also challenge you to think about any decision you may have made today and ask yourself why you made that decision...see if you have an answer.

I'm going to leave this one here because the word "decision" is starting to sound weird to me and that can't be good...

"You are always only one decision away from a totally different life" - Happy Choosing!