by Ingrid G

Created on: June 06, 2008   Last Updated: June 07, 2008

Choosing Your Path

A human being's ability to choose is a privilege and a responsibility. The two go together. You can not take one without the other. It is the clear application of the overused phase: you can not have your cake and eat it too'. If you want to be free to make your own choices, you must be ready to accept the responsibility for the consequences that will derive from those choices. I fully accept this dual package and will never relinquish my right to make my own choices.

Why should I allow anyone to tell me what to do? Why should anyone allow it? Although, I see how some people may be well intended. I still fail to understand what makes them think that anything that they could tell me will be better for me than my ability to make my own choices. Our circumstances may be parallel, but they are not the same. The choices may be comparable, but not equal. The outcomes may be similar, but they will never be identical.

I am my own person with a unique and specific set of conditions that impact my life, my thinking and my beliefs. However, because I refuse to follow the path that others have taken, I have been called stubborn. Because I claim to know better what is best for me, I have been called arrogant. Because I stay focused on what is important for me, I have been called inflexible. I accept these names gladly since it is a small price to pay for my freedom to be and to choose for myself.

With that said, let me just clarify that my choices are not made in a vacuum. I make them after carefully pondering all the angles of a situation and taking into consideration the key elements of feedback and recommendations provided by others that may be applicable to my situation. However, at the end of the day, it is invigorating and empowering to know that I control my life.

At the end of the journey, the choices I have made in my life have taken me, at times, to a very successful place. This is the place where I experience the fulfillment of knowing that I arrived there because I, and only I, elected it. Other times, my choices have taken me through a path of tears and disappointment. In spite of the outcome not being the expected joyful one, I have upon reflection felt fulfilled. More often than not, when I evaluate the choices made and the path taken, I conclude that I am still at a successful place because the learning process I endured has made me a far better person. Even in these instances, I am fulfilled because the choice was mine.

In the same manner, you have control over your life. Don't allow others to dictate the path you must follow. Don't let others' fears limit your potential. Don't permit others' disenchantment to become yours and blind you to the power that lies within you to direct your life to true fulfillment.

Learn more about this author, Ingrid G.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.