Self awareness, is the touchstone for good choice-making.
Self-awareness is the capacity for introspection and the ability to recognize oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals. It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. While consciousness is being aware of one’s environment and body and lifestyle, self-awareness is the recognition of that awareness. Self-awareness is how an individual consciously knows and understands their own character, feelings, motives, and desires.
(Extract From Wikipedia)
Choice is about deciding between many possibilities, picking form a variety of options, selecting a preference. Making a decision commits us to a certain path, a path that says something about us and could lead us to somewhere we want or to nowhere.
Some of our very important choices have a timeline. If we delay a decision, the opportunity is gone forever. Sometimes, our doubts keep us from making a choice that involves change. Thus, the opportunity may be missed. – James E. Faust
Making choices can change our lives for the better or worse!
Every choice that we have made in the past has brought us to where we are today.
One choice leads to another and creates our life edifice.
This is both the blessing and curse of choosing.
This means that each choice carries significance, however major or minor.
Let call the protagonist of our humankind as A.man.
A.man knows choosing, however hard, presents him with opportunities to use qualities that he has but may never before has seen the light of the day. As he practices choosing and becoming more accustomed to be a choice maker, the decision becomes more conscious and robust. It builds his self confidence. Making choices becomes more autonomous. Choices preset him with the opportunity to emerge in his fullness as a thinking and growing human being and a master of his destiny.
Choices bring him to life! It is a generative process: he begins to understand what needs to be done, and once over the initial inertia of resistance, the process becomes self-reinforcing, allowing him to be bolder and brighter in the choices he made.
The road becomes smoother => A.man knows how to negotiate them with more awareness and skill. It is a creative art that enables him to express his true personalities, values and beliefs and make great use of his experiences.
A.man needs to review his position constantly and check that he is on the path that is most conducive to his sense of achievement and happiness. His ability to harness his power and make choices for himself rests, we believe, on the extent of his self-understanding and self-belief.
Choices lead to change. Change takes A.man into the an unknown, strange and uncertain place. It gives him an opportunity to understand himself and his judgement better => He languishes in his dilemma for years. He wants to break the cycle of procastination of taking action and lives a more fulfilling life, in his lifetime.
A.man knows that to achieve his long term goal, he must be willing to pay the price of sticking to his plan of actions, work on it day in day out without fail. It is simple, but not easy. He believes, firmly that his goal is worthwhile and he could achieve it.
The fear of “getting it wrong” and the feeling of isolation in your choosing may dissuade you from making progress and render you stuck =>in the perpetuation of the status quo.
What is more, the lure of the familiar will often seduce you into staying with the “devil you know” rather than risk making those hard and unpredictable decisions that take you into the unknown => Not making a decision is a choice. Ensure any sense of permanence is an illusion!
This means making clear, concise and honest choices.
It follows that unless you can attune yourself to the fine rhythms of your life and have the courage of your convictions (sometimes against the interests of those close to us), you will not become well-informed choice maker. Instead, you’ll remain as blunt instrument that sabotage your real choice.
It is okay to be different – there is no such thing as a universally good or bad person, and there’s no such thing as a universally good or right choice.
Analyze the reasons and implications of your choices.
So, we’re saying, “Go For It!”. Employ the practical and the instinctive side of your being. Better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all.
The action demands courage to make choices because it reveals your willingness to take responsibility for yourself and claim your rightful place in the world => The colour and richness in being an individual and living life in a unique way (yet we are not schooled in self expression)
And, accepting the possibility that you have more potential than your current thinking that you have.
Are you able to tap your full potential to live ” A More Happier and Fulfilling Life”?
It is your choice!
Reuben H C Ong (a.k.a Reuben Ong)