We make decisions every day. Simple choices mostly, like what order we want to start our morning in. If we are going to stop for coffee. What time we need to leave the house. Or what color shirt we want to wear. There are also decisions that maybe depend on our mood or just take a little extra thought. Sometimes as minor as what we want for lunch or if we want to attend Friday happy hour. Of course, from time to time we are faced with bigger choices to make. Choices that we might struggle with. They typically revolve around things that effect us more long term. Our relationships, work place, living environment. They might be exciting decisions such as making a move to a new city or choosing a new career path. Maybe going back to school or doing something to better ourselves.
But, some go deeper. They present us with a battle of what’s right versus what’s wrong.What we know in our heart we should do but our mind is too worried on how it could backfire. Will the dam break when the decisions been made? When we follow our heart and know we did what’s right…will it still feel right?
These decisions stir up questions. They leave us trying to predict the outcome on both ends. How things will play out. Will it end in our favor? Or will it explode and create a mess we never intended for? They leave us wondering if instead of it leading to good, will it just create pain and regret? Will we feel better? Or will it be something that continues to weigh on us until the smoke finally clears and something else takes its place.
They may feel like a double edge sword. They surely don’t have the consequences of simply regretting the shirt you picked out and sometimes can even leave us wondering who we really are as a person. They test our values, morals and beliefs. Our strength to stand up for ourselves and for what we know matters most and again, the simple concept of right versus wrong.
We discover who we are more and more, every day. We encounter things that hurt us, make us happy, make us feel good and these things sculpt us into who we are. We learn how we want to be treated and how we want to treat others. We learn what we can tolerate and understand and what we have no room or patience for in our lives. We grow to know what we need and we gain a better understanding of what is right to us and what we know is wrong, no matter what the reasoning. We learn how to make our day to day decisions. We learn how to stand strong when we are faced with bigger dilemmas. We learn to trust our instincts and handle things the best way we know how.
However, when we are faced with difficult choices in life, who we are as a person can honestly just become blurred. The overall outcome of doing what’s right, might seem almost bigger than the problem itself and that alone, can blur our vision and be difficult to see past. It might take us a little longer to remember to simply do what we know is right. To stand up for what we believe in. To accept that even if we drown when the dam breaks, we will always know, we made the right choice.
When we take a minute to dig down deeper and remember who we are, we are choosing to stay true to ourselves. And when all is said and done, you can never be wrong when you make that decision.
Marilyn Colwell 