This week we are talking about choices. Sometimes we have topics that are hard to explain to our younger students. This is not one of them. Kids learn even before they start school that the choices they make have consequences or rewards. When they make a mess and don’t clean it up, their parents get angry at them, but when they finish all of their vegetables at dinner, they get dessert. It’s not always that simple, but a lot of times it is easy to prove how the choices we make have direct positive or negative outcomes.
As we get older, the choices we make might not have immediate consequences or rewards, but rather a combination of choices lead to eventual rewards or punishments. For instance, if you are someone who got in trouble a lot as a teenager, maybe you don’t see immediate consequences beyond your parents being disappointed in you. As a young adult you might take jobs that don’t care that you have a charge for underage drinking or trespassing on your record. But as you grow in your career, you might want to take the next step and pursue a better job. At some point, if you don’t take the necessary steps to expunge that record, it will catch up with you.
Similarly, a lot of people find themselves fresh out of college without a job. Gone are the days of just getting your degree and everything will fall into place. Even if you end up in a job that doesn’t require the degree you are still paying off, eventually that choice might pay off. Maybe you didn’t need the degree to get the job, but you do need a degree to advance in the company. In a couple years’ time, your coworkers without a degree might be overlooked for a promotion that you receive.
It’s hard to tell whether or not your choices will have a big reward or punishment, or if the outcome will be neutral. Rather than playing your life like a slot machine, waiting for that big payout, make strategic choices that will have benefits even if you don’t receive the windfall reward you were hoping for. If you live your life making choices that put good into the world and make you a better person, you are going to have a good life. If you make selfish choices that only benefit your own interests, you might have rewards like money, but I don’t believe you will be truly happy.
I encourage you to start viewing your day as a series of choices. Empower yourself to create a good day. Starting in the morning, you have a choice to wake up with your alarm and have enough time to get ready in the morning, or snooze multiple times and feel rushed. You have a choice as to what food you eat each day. Should you get fast food which makes you temporarily happy but can have other negative effects, or should you choose a meal that properly fuels your body to face the day. You have the power to give yourself a good day; it just depends on the choices you make. Start today making choices that lead to a good day.
- Bria