My Thoughts on Choice

"You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your ben and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."

Yesterday, I saw"The Adjustment Bureau", a film dealing with choice, the nature of free will, the ripple effect etc. It got me thinking.

Every day we are presented with endless choices. Do I drive to work today or shall I take the train? Will I have a coffee before leaving or skip it and have one later? Do I go for a run or stay in because its cold? Shall I cook for myself or get a Chinese take-away? I could go on...

Many of these decisions we take mindlessly, through habit or reflex. Should this be so? After all, each decision leads to another choice, and another, and another ad infinitum. If we step back a moment and put even a tiny amount of thought behind some of those seemingly tiny choices perhaps, just perhaps, we could influence those things in life that seem inevitable or insurmountable.

For example, I'm a runner. I've made no secret of that but I've only been a 'proper' runner since October 2011 because I'm monumentally lazy if I can get away with it. I read books and running magazines for nearly a year before stepping foot outdoors. It has taken a great deal of conscious effort for me to actually drag myself out beyond my front door to run consistently. I've battled cold weather, wind, my ungodly work schedule and my own laziness to do what has been necessary. Each time I've not felt like getting out for a run, I've had to remind myself of how rubbish I'd feel for letting myself down. I even joined a running club. And the result of all this? I regularly run 3 times a week no matter what my work schedule and I've raced up and down a mountain! If you told me that a year ago I'd have laughed in your face!

It took a surprisingly small amount of effort to achieve this though. I just had to stop and think briefly before choosing to stay inside my warm house. I simply said to myself, 'it'll only be half an hour', 'you'll feel better about yourself afterwards', 'it'll be easier than the last time', 'you'll soon warm yourself up' etc. Then off I would go.

What's my point? Well, my point is that often we do know how the ripples of our decisions will play out but we simply ignore it. I knew if I didn't go out for that run, the next one would be even harder to do, I'd be down on myself, I'd eat crap and eventually just give up.

At the end of the day, all we have are our choices. We have total control over the decisions we make. We can predict the impact our decisions will have on our lives. We just have to think before we choose.