When we talk about making choices, in relation to our future and personal growth, we often refer to significant choices. Big stuff.
Life changing choices must be, by nature, daunting and hard to take. At least that’s what seems to be the belief for many of us.
For sure, there are occasions when we have to take #decisions, make choices, in a big way, like will we move from Santa Barbara to Taos? Or should we get married? Is it time to quit our soul stifling job? These choices can be excrutiating, or they can be no-brainers, but we are aware in any case that they will have a big impact on our existence.
What we are less aware of, however, is the incredible power or the tiny bitty choices we make in the course of every day, with hardly a second thought, and often in a very casual, or even unconscious way.
Minute #choices, such as let’s say, add 1/2 spoon of sugar instead of 2, wear heels or comfortable walking shoes, buy a $4 latte or take our own cup of coffee from home, smile or frown, interrupt a friend or listen all the way, sit straight or slump, walk or drive, text while driving or not, have a glass of wine or not, keep our emails clear and tidy, or let them accumulate in an overwhelming number… I could go on and on… you get the drift. Little things.
All these tiny choices hold amazing power in the sheer number of their repetition, despite their relative insignificance in isolated occasions.
In fact, when we look at them closer, it’s what we do the most in small ways but long periods of time, that shape our lives.
Nothing flashy here. Only the humdrum of habits.
But wait! Could my habits be mostly unconscious choices? Indeed.
When I take the 2 spoons of sugar, I choose to indulge in the moment, and to continue what might already be responsible for a pesky extra weight or a diabetes threat.
When I smile deliberately, I make myself feel better, and that’s a proven fact… day after day, I won’t develop the same kind of wrinkles, nor the same kind of relationship to the world.
The simple fact to refrain from texting while driving insures that I won’t be maiming or killing someone for it.
When we let things such as emails unattended, we end up not being able to even see what mught be important, and we’ll feel anxiety.
And when I have that glass of wine every day, I noticeably increase my risk to develop cancer.
As we see here, time is of the essence.
Repetition shapes WHO WE ARE.
On the long term, a tiny choice can make or break my health, my #relationships, or my financial soundness.
On the moment, as a one of, each small choice looks insignificant enough, though.
But you make that insignificant choice every day and the results is gonna get more and more heft.
So can we shape our lives in a very significant way by making tiny significant choices every day? You bet.
It’s even the most efficient way to change our trajectory, in any domain of life, without having to upend it!
Let’s say you are journeying through space, and you vary your direction only 1 degree angle. What will happen? After a while you’ll end up in a very different place than where you aimed to go at first.
Guaranteed. ONE DEGREE. How small is that?
The cool part is that tiny choices are DOABLE.
They are manageable.
They are not so challenging that we get discouraged by the idea…
Also they can be made immediately, in the flow of today’s life.
No big deal. Right now.
If I keep it up… it’ll be a new habit before I realize it.
It just requires one thing, a very powerful thing: the #mindfulness to do what we do in a deliberate fashion.
Becoming #aware that every single action I take is actually a choice I make.
That’s my power in action. That’s the way I shape my #life
.And the rewards are mind blowing.
Small choices… they are our best friends if we choose to make them so.
Much love
Emmeline