What We Knew Then About The Power of Choice

How are you using your Power of Choice this week? I wrote a Twitter post Sunday that read “This will be the week that changes my life. Of course, that can apply to any week - and it should.” A age old motivational saying says that “Today is the first day of the rest of your life”. Yet another says “Act like today is the last day of your life,” though I assume it doesn't require you to quit your job and take your family to Disneyland after selling everything you own and draining your savings.



I watch my kids, and they act like every second is the first second of the rest of their lives. They are fighting, crying, frustrated one moment, then enjoying the next with all the fervor of a tasmanian devil. The younger they are, the quicker they recover. It seems only through age do we get gunshy, and make our choices more deliberate, harder to shift in a moment, and often downright sluggish.

We excuse ourselves from this by calling our new process 'discernment', 'caution', or 'wisdom' – but in truth, it is often just FEAR. Fear of failing again. Fear of getting yelled at. Fear of disappointing others or ourselves. Yes, as adults we have a responsibility to take more care with our choices than we did as children, but we must not allow that care to prevent us from recovering quickly, regaining a positive attitude, and taking all-out action soon after-the-fact of our last disaster.



We often say “If only I knew then what I know now”. What if we knew NOW what we knew THEN? What if we attacked life with the passion of child? With the perspective that all I have to do is do it again, and the persistence to act?

The choices we made as a child weren't miles off of the choices we need to make as adults. The discernment we gain as adults is designed to help us make millimeter adjustments as we shoot for the stars – not ground us for hours, days, weeks, months, years, even lifetimes at a time.

Take it back. Take back your Power of Choice. Act with the passion, perspective, and persistence you had THEN – and refocus your discernment on success, instead of potential disappointment.
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