Wednesday, April 4, 2012

THE CHOICE IS YOURS

I often wonder if we are exercising all of the choices we have available to us. Og Mandino in his book the “Choice” said, “Those who live in unhappy failure have never exercised their options for a better way of life because they have never been aware that they had any choices! So many of us fail to notice our entire life is about making choices. Everything is a choice.

People intimate they “have to” do certain things:

“I have to take care of my child.”
"I have to go to work.”
"I have to feed my family.”

All of these “have to's” are really a choice. We can choose not to go to work or not to feed our family, etc. but we choose to do so because the consequences of not doing so move us to make the choice to do it. Thus reframing the way we talk to ourselves often helps make life smoother. Rather than talking to yourself in terms of “I have to” start saying to yourself “I choose to go to work” or “I choose to feed my family”. By saying “I choose” you are recognizing your choices in life and putting yourself back in control of you.

Richard Y Moody, PhD
Clinical Psychologist