In one brief moment…

This post continues from my “Stop the clock” entry from yesterday. I ended it by saying that the second I pay attention to my time is the moment my life can begin again.

Everything that we do is both a new beginning and an ending of something. A decision to lose weight is a decision to change from one way of living to another – to end one part of our life and to begin another. More exercise. Healthy eating. Buying new clothes.

The same can be said for the way we choose to travel to work, the route we take, the attitude we have, and the way we choose to act when we are at work. We are free to take the direct route if we wanted to, or go the long way round. Each decision has it’s own set of consequences, and again, the way we respond to those consequences moves us forward in yet other different directions.

The possibilities are endless. We could choose to go the long way round one day, and end up being extremely late. We blame ourselves for making the wrong decision, and then we blame the traffic for making us later, and then we blame the car park for being full, and then we blame the office for having to work on the top floor that makes us even later still, and then we blame the boss for not being understanding when he asks why we are late. Every step there is a decision on our part to take what has happened in the negative way. We have still moved along from point A to point B, but we are not in a happy place. Everything is against us. Even ourselves.

At any of those moments we could choose to think differently, act differently, and arrive at point B feeling much happier. We may still be extremely late, but we can accept that and move on. Choosing to accept things gives us a different set of consequences to handle, but as we’re happy we’ll handle them.

I don’t think anything can really bother us when we are in our happy place. Well, I know it, really.

Decisions

We make decisions all of the time. Sometimes randomly, without thinking, and sometimes after pondering on whatever major thing is making us ponder at that moment in time. The decision is that part of a second flash of inspiration I mentioned yesterday. We choose to act in a certain way by that something that pushed us in that direction.

Choosing how we respond to the consequences is where everything branches out.

We made the wrong decision – we blame ourselves for being stupid – or – we go back and look at a different decision to make, learn and move on.

We made the right decision but somebody doesn’t like us for making that decision – we can feel guilty and then make further wrong decisions – or – we can feel guilty, make further right decisions and hate doing it – or – we can explain why our decision was the right one, move forward by making other decisions (right or wrong) and continue learning and feeling happy.

We decided we couldn’t make the decision and passed it over to someone else – and feel like a complete failure – or – watch the other person do the right or wrong thing and learn – or –  know that we had to pass this particular event over to someone else as we weren’t ready to make that decision yet.

Every decision is made in a split second.

Our lives can be changed in a split second.

Feeling good about the decisions we make takes practice. I need the practice. I can make some decisions really easily, and others that I feel as though I hate myself for making them. But how can I say that I hate myself? I know that isn’t true.

I’ve made a decision to say that I will never hate myself again. And when I do, I will remember writing this, and make the decision again. And when I say it again, I’ll remember again. And again. And again. I’m happy to be learning this.

I’ve made a decision to feel good, and I will constantly be working on that with each and every other decision that I make.