Choices

Choices. 

“...you make your choices and your choices make you.”

Darren Hardy

The Compound Effect

Darren Hardy in his book The Compound Effect devotes an entire chapter in his book to the importance of choices, both those we make and those we don’t. 

He writes about how the choices we make can set “the trajectory” of our life. 

I spent a little time thinking about different choices I had made in my life, and how they had set me on the path that I am on today. I also wondered what would have happened if I had changed just one choice?

This phenomenon is known as The Butterfly Effect. Simply choosing one thing different may change everything. 

When I graduated from college I was offered a teaching position in McKinney, Texas. School had already started, and I was quite depressed that I did not have a job yet. As much as I wanted to accept the position it really made no sense. It was too far to commute, and with my meager beginning teacher salary there was no way I could have paid the bills. 

Little did I realize that seven years later I would be introduced to Chuck by one of the teachers I taught with in Cedar Hill. If I had never taken that position we would never have met. I think about how my two grandsons would not be here today if I had made a different choice. 

Each day I have a series of choices to make. Often I don’t give many of them much thought, as they have just become my routine, but is that necessarily a good thing? 

Chuck and I have a habit of plopping down in front of the tv after dinner. We made a different choice the other night after I started reading The Compound Effect. What if we read for 30 minutes after dinner? Even if we only read one book a month, that would end up being twelve more books than we would have read before. 

I can’t help but think that thirty minutes of reading will probably benefit us more than another thirty minutes of television. 

Think about some of the choices you make. Is there another choice you could make that over time will pay off in a healthier way? Slow and steady wins the race.