Choices

I have been thinking today about choices. I recently read part of The Secret and it talks about kind of willing things to happen in your life. Today as I have pondered some thing a friend said to me about if I wanted it, I would make it happen, I began to think. I wonder how much of our lives are really all about choices. I have learned my whole life in church that we chose to come to Earth and have this life. I wonder how many things in our lives boil down to simply choosing it. I have often resented people saying "you just have to wake up and choose to be happy" I think this is maybe an oversimplification. Just choosing happiness isn't going to make it so, but what if that choosing to be happy has more of an impact. I firmly believe the only thing we can control about our circumstances is how we react to them, choosing what we'll do, think, or feel. Or rather how we will react to how we feel. So what if it's all about waking up and choosing happiness and then making an appointment to go get our hair cut the way we want it or setting a goal and working toward it. I have often wondered if little choices made along the way have changed the path I was supposed to be on drastically. Not to dwell on the what ifs, because really what good does that do, but rather to notice the long term effects of small things. What if I hadn't said yes to a job somewhere that led me somewhere else. That choice would have drastically altered my future and who I am. I hate when people say they didn't have a choice or they don't have a choice. There is always a choice sometimes we have to choose to do things we don't want to do, or sometimes the choices we make cause us to lose or miss out on something that is important to us. Choices are about prioritizing, is character more important than friendship, is keeping a promise more important than having fun. Is the happiness of someone else more important than our own? Someone put all of this into perspective for me. She told me that it is not uncommon for values to conflict at times. I often feel this. Sometimes doing what will make me happy will cause problems for others but I have to choose what is more important to me, which I value most at that time. We shouldn't always put others first but sometimes that's good to do. Sometimes we have to choose to do things we don't want to do because it's the right thing or we know we have to take that step. At times our choices aren't difficult or life altering. Some choices change who we are and others just help us get where we're going. Sometimes the choices and the actions that follow are simple and easy to do. Other times it's more difficult. Choosing happiness isn't going to be easy but I don't think I would ever look back after a long happy life and wish I would have made a better choice. Maybe fulfilling our destiny is just about making predictable choices, predicted by someone who knows us better than we know ourselves.