I am sure everyone has been in a situation where facts contradict. Where your mind is sending you signals in analog and your heart in digital and it is out of phase. Okay, okay, enough nerd speak, i get the point. Anyway, back to business.
Time and again, life poses situations in front of us along with two choices, the easy way (good/bad) and the other way (mostly difficult). I am always fascinated by how even in the grimmest of times, life always gives us a choice. We are in that sense free. Free to choose either. Along the same lines, if choice is free, nothing could ever be black or white or wrong or right. It depends on perception and not everyone’s is going to match.
On Wednesday, i went for coffee with a friend of mine. We had a fun conversation and discussed so many different things and laughed and enjoyed each other’s company. At the end of the evening he posed me with the gift of choice. I choose what was best in that moment but i thought about it more over the next two days and came to a conclusion that my initial choice was wrong. This exercise was classic. Mind and heart games happened. They didn’t agree with one another initially but they know they are partners for life so they finally reached consensus after more than 24 hours. Not bad, i’d say.
Turning back to the Friday before this week, another friend of mine, posed me with a choice. That decision was tough too, but i had to do what’s best and i picked me. Today again, i picked me. Taking the high road, knowing you might feel bad about it from time to time isn’t the easiest thing to do. Making a difficult choice of hanging on or letting go for the sake of your own sanity and self respect, again, isn’t easy but must be done. Some might say i was selfish in at least one of these two situations but hey, sometimes you have to do whatever it is to protect yourself, your peace, your happiness. Instant gratification is powerful and we all cave in once in a while but to be able to reflect and find yourself and pick yourself is a grace. The grace of wisdom.
So i pray, when you are forced to make a difficult choice, talk to friends who know you well. Ask them to be rational about their opinions or think long and hard about whatever it is that’s bothering you and then see what is the one thing that speaks to your soul. What is it that defines you? Forget peer pressure. The bigger pressure is often ignored/ goes unnoticed and that leads you to not making the right choice which then leads to regret. Peers come and go but you have to live with yourself for as long as you live. Make that tough choice, pick yourself because sometimes you really need to do what’s best for you.
burntbreakfast 