LIFE’S CHOICES

by Omolara Aduke | Dec 21, 2020 | Lifestyle

As I laid on my bed ruminating on the happenings around me, I was reminded once again of one of the greatest truths about life. “Our life is a function of our daily choices”. The choices we make define who we are. Not our birthplace or the heritage we inherited from our parents, but what we choose our lives to be. Every single defining moment in our lives is marked by choices.

When I’m faced with a student or any individual who needs counseling or a piece of advice, one of the very first questions I ask is, “what do you want?” or I bluntly ask, “Do you want to get better?” Why?

I’ve realized that as much as I’m willing to help others, the choice to be better is simply theirs to make not mine. People might pull and push us; the media, our parents and peer groups, colleagues and elders within the society, everyone dishes opinions about what we should do with our lives, but in the end, the final decision is always ours to make. Choices cannot be forced down someone else’s throat, because if it were, then it would no longer be a choice but terrorism.

Life dishes us some very hard knocks, alright; and we equally get some amazing deals we never bargained for. These two possibilities should however not make us feel powerless or out of control about our own fate, because, in the end, we still have to decide how we receive these possibilities. Do we stay knocked down or do we rise? Are we grateful for the opportunities or are we conceited?

Like the popular saying, “If life offers you a lemon, make lemonades”. We always have a choice not to swallow everything life throws our way just as it comes. We have a choice to make it better for ourselves and garnished to our taste.

Hypothetically speaking, what if life offers you nothing? Like absolute emptiness? Would you just take it, would you stay down and accept defeat? I don’t know about you, but I really do not like lemons that much. If I’m offered lemons, I would most likely reject them and request apples or coconuts. Why? I know what I want and I do not settle for less.

We should apply the same technique to life. When faced with seemingly impossible situations, we should not settle for it as “amuwa olorun (God’s doing)” and be complacent. Rather, we should leave that state and endeavour to achieve what we really want.

We are not powerless and out of control on the path of life. In fact, we have all the cards, even the choices of how to play our lucky breaks and the hard knocks.
No one can be held responsible for how our lives turn out but our individual self. We decide our paths.

The choices we made yesterday, is reflected in our lives today and the choices we make today would be played out in our tomorrow.

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life so that you and your descendants might live!”

Deuteronomy 30:19 NLT

What are your thoughts on choice; are we the major actors of our lives or are we bystanders tossed to and fro by fate?