The hardest choices are the most important

Life is a path of choices, one after another. While the amount of input we have in the choices laid in front of us is questionable there will be a moment, many moments per day when we are forced to choose. Most of these are seemingly meaningless little things like do I want a hot or iced coffee but occasionally we come up against the big ones.

We all have those moments in life. The ones we look back on as pivotal to where we ended up today. As someone who can agonize over the thought of buying a $29 pair of Dickies like it’s going to be a life altering decision, these big moments stand out like monoliths jutting out into the  road of life. These decisions often made me want to shut down and bury my head in the sand for fear of making a wrong choice.

That’s how you know the important markers in life; nothing is easy when we have a lot to lose. And yet, I managed to end up in a place happier and healthier than I ever imagined possible. Was I lucky? Was I just a great decision maker? Did I just know how to make all the right choices?

The irony of my happiness is that I have led a life bereft of good decisions. The jails and rehabs and arrests and financial troubles were all evidence of that. So what gives?

Failures, wrong choices, bad decisions all are chances to grow. Life’s obstacles are sometimes placed in front of us, sometimes by external events but also by ourselves. We might need those obstacles to grow, to become who we want to be. Maybe every bad decision opens up important choices along the way that lead us to who we are.

Make the hard decisions. Make the tough choices. But be less afraid of being wrong and more afraid of staying stagnant. You may have a lot to lose but if you make the hard choice, regardless of outcome, you have everything to gain.