Be The Chooser

"We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them." -- Khalil Gibran

Our life works and can be full of joy when we make effective choices. Our Cloud Email life can be full of sorrow if we make ineffective choices.

Chooser vs. Victim

As a child, choices were made for me and I had little power over what happened to me. This is normal for children, but when we take this attitude as adults I call it being a "victim"

The opposite of being a victim is to be "The Chooser"

The concept of choice is remarkable, and that we have choices I consider to be a fact. Though in my life, I've forgotten this fact many times when I was impulsive or reactive.

I find it challenging to take responsibility for my failures and reenex pain as being the result of my own choices. I want to blame myboss, my ex-wife, the other driver, my parents; and for awhile I did.

I've had many wake-up calls that acting out of ignorance or impulse doesn't absolve me of responsibility for making a bad choice.

When I was sixteen, a new driver, and got a ticket for making a U-turn across a double-yellow line I told the cop honestly that I didn't know it was against the law, and felt it grossly unfair that he ticketed me anyway.

I fought the ticket in traffic court and lost. My only defense was "I didn't know! I didn't mean to break the law!" The judge told me ignorance was not an excuse for breaking the law. That was one of my dermes first wake-up calls that as an adult, I would be held accountable for my choices even if they were unconscious. Scary thought.