To do or not to do

“It is our choices ,Harry ,that show us what we truly are , far more than our abilities.”

J.K. Rowling , Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Life is all about the choices we make. We are what we are today because of the choices we made yesterday.

I’ve made some excellent , healthy choices. I’ve chosen to stick up for some people , chosen to support certain ethics in life and also chosen to wear sunscreen everyday.

On the not so admirable side , I’ve made bad choices as well – obsessing people who were not worth my time , missing rehearsals and dance classes for things I did not really want to do but felt obliged to , eating all those extra diwali sweets…

We don’t realize that the effects of our choices are not seen immediately. They sort of pile up invisibly and choose some clandestine moment to manifest in life and BAM…it hits us right in our face.

The more toned figure I sport now is the result of my choice to wake up early at 5:15 a.m. when the rest of the world is sleeping and go for yoga.

The fact that I stumble during my kathak classes is definitely the showcase of my choice to perform other activities that futilely ate up my time leaving me with no strength to spin in class.

World War was a result of choices. King Gautama becoming the Buddha was after his choice to leave his kingdom. Judas chose to betray Jesus. Magneto chose to leave the X-Men. I decided to study psychology instead of medicine. …Our choices have power , even and especially if it changes things for us.

I’m doing my pre-doctoral research in positive psychology now and we’re constantly looking for ways to increase fulfillment in life. A simple way would be to realize the magnitude of our main choices .

And just like the consumer market which offers us an umpteen number of choices , most of us will face either an approach-approach , avoid-avoid or approach-avoid path. In the first , we are forced to choose between two equally desirable options or goals. For eg – deciding who to date- Someone awesomely smart or someone who makes us laugh? The second , we reluctantly choose between two equally unappealing choices. The awful , bone-crunching gym session or the health ailments later? And the third is the most confusing – to do or not to do. Do I quit my job? I’m going to get the free time I’ve always wanted to learn to swim but then who’s gonna pay me the dough that I need to whip up for my expensive swimming class?

Maybe we should start with the question about what’s more important for us. And act accordingly. And realize that while you’re prioritizing one thing over the other , we can always do the other later on. Realize that every single domain in our life need not be perfect all the time.

Why did I choose to write this while everything else in my blog is candyfloss?

Because I suddenly realized that I had the power to choose…

And so do you.