Choice and Change Redux
by Miki SaxonWhile looking for something in my old posts I came across this one and decided it was a good time to post it again.
Choose the Freedom to Change
“The past is the present, isn’t it? It’s the future, too.”
–Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Eugene O’Neill
I recently ran across this quote; it’s been years since I read the play, but that poignant line, with its message that what has been is and irrevocably will be has always left me feeling depressed and angry.
Depressed because it revokes hope.
Angry because it’s the antithesis of everything I believe.
It proclaims that we, whether individuals, organizations or countries, can’t change; that we are locked on our trajectory with no rudder and an endless supply of fuel.
That thought represents a type of MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) I’ve constantly rejected, while embracing the belief that anyone can change if they choose to make the effort.
Not that it’s simple or that it’s easy, but that it can be done.
I’ve done it and am in the process of doing it again.
You’ve done it and can choose to do it again.
Whether you choose an opportunity or pass it by, each one changes the present and alters the future, because your MAP changes with each decision.
Not necessarily large changes, but changes none the less and those changes will impact your next decision and so on throughout life.
You can avoid changes by embracing a rigid ideology that eliminates decisions by turning a blind eye of all divergent opportunities or by allowing someone else to decide for you in the name of followership.
What will you choose to do?
Flickr image credit: David Reece
