Our Choices in LIFE Are Many -4
We Have a Plethora of Choices in Life. But the Reality is that the Decision is Ours as to Which Ones We Choose to Live
This is the 4th article on goals. Links to the first 3 articles are at the bottom.
We all face a lot of choices in life. In fact, it might be said we are given a plethora of choices in life. The image above is of Alice in Wonderland. It represents some choices she was faced with.
A Humorous Story About Making Choices
We are given so many choices in life that life can become confusing. Have you looked at the jam or peanut butter or chip aisle in the grocery store recently? It can almost cause temporary insanity trying to make a choice.
How about ice cream? I had this experience when my wife Eileen and I were in London, England about 20 years ago (We live in Colorado, USA). We were standing behind two Englishmen at a sidewalk ice cream shop. I knew we had 45–50 different flavors of ice cream in the U.S.
But what I heard from one of these two men made me laugh: “How do those bloody Americans decide between so many flavors of ice cream? I can hardly decide between vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.”
Alice in Wonderland was faced with a lot of choices too.
We Must Make Choices How We Live Life
The phrase is almost overused: “Life is a journey, not a destination.”
At least as a kid, we all loved Alice in Wonderland. She was on a life-discovery journey that all of us are on to some degree or other. So we related to Alice. Author Lewis Carroll did a great job.
Do you recall the story of the Cheshire Cat in the tree?
Alice was out walking and she looked up and asked the cat: “Which way should I go?” The cat said, “That depends on where you are going.” Alice replied, “I don’t know.” The cat said, “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
Like Alice, Our LIFE Is a Journey vs. a Destination
The fact is we should balance these two issues, and I’ll close by talking about our destination. We all must have some sense of where we are headed and why. But most of life should be a journey, which is what this is about.
Life is a journey. Which way we go in life is really up to us. As the subtitle to this article says, “We have a plethora of choices in life. But the reality is that the decision is ours as to which ones we choose.”
We can just allow the tide of life to pull us along, wherever it happens to go, or we can be lead by our own dreams, aspirations, purposes, and priorities. (Note: this was discussed in the first article in this series).
It has been said, “LIFE is either an exciting adventure or it is nothing.” I’ve found some interesting quotes about this from noteworthy, visible, respected people. Here are a few that are worth thinking about.
IF you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere — or at least somewhere. (Henry Kissinger)
LIFE is a journey, but don’t worry, you’ll find a parking spot. (Isaac Asimov)
Your time is limited. Don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma: living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. (Steve Jobs)
LIFE is a journey, not a destination. Happiness is not ‘there’ but here, not ‘tomorrow’ but today. (Sidney Greenberg)
LIFE is a journey up a spiral staircase, as we grow older we cover the ground covered we have covered before, only higher up. As we look down the winding stair below us we measure our progress by the number of places where we were but no longer are. The journey is both repetitious and progressive: we go both round and upward. (William Butler Yeats)
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Watch your step. (Thomas S. Monson)
LIFE is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
YOUR LIFE is a journey of learning to love yourself first and then extending that love to others in every encounter. (Oprah Winfrey)
If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else. (Yogi Berra)
The feeling remains that God is on the journey with us too. (Teresa of Avila)
The only journey is the one within. (Rainer Maria Rilke)
AND I’LL ADD ONE OF MINE: The journey is what brings us joy, not our arrival at any destination. Whether the destination is good, or if it is bad, it is soon passed over for more of life’s continuing journey. The old expression is true: ‘This too will pass.’ (Roger Himes)
Life is Only a Temporary Assignment.
The Apostle James says, “Life is but a vapor.” Another quote says, ‘a mirage.’ Some people live a very short time. Others of us live a much longer time.
When I did nightclub entertaining I also performed at some hospitals and nursing homes. At a child hospital, I sang for some children. Afterward, a little girl (about 5-6) came up to me and said, “Do you know what? I get to go meet Jesus real soon.” At the time I had no spirit about me and was actually confused about what she meant.
Of course, now I know what she meant. But I’ve also come to realize that what she inferred was that her life-journey would be very short.
When I was younger, I knew ‘Mr. Positive’ himself: Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. In fact, he wrote a statement for a book I’d written: ‘Searching For Reality.’ The cover said, “How to get the most out of the best you have to offer.”
This is still a good statement, at least partially, about our journey in LIFE. This is true although I’ve also come to see that ‘self-help’ has another side to the coin that says ‘God-help.’
On Life’s Journey: Caution!. Our personal ability, potential, success and drive can get in the way of LIFE! Mine did for awhile! (Roger Himes)
The reason LIFE is a journey, not a destination, is that life results in death. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “No one gets out of this life alive.” — “We all have one thing in common: a date with the undertaker.” God has placed hope in our hearts that there is more to life than the physical 3-D stuff we see around us on spaceship earth.
There is an eternal dimension. Of course, we must believe God, and live life with him, to realize this. If we know God, life is a blessing. If we don’t know him it can be a curse. In this regard, our TESTIMONY is important, as seen in goals article 3.
Life is unpredictable. It has mountain tops and valleys we all experience. And it never goes exactly as we plan it, does it? After all, if we knew everything before it happened, life would be boring. Thus LIFE IS A JOURNEY.
We Should View Life Like a Roadtrip
One summer when our daughters Lisa and Shawn were home from college and other endeavors like working with YWAM: Youth With A Mission, we decided to take a road trip.
We really didn’t know where we were going to go except we were heading south out of Colorado, and we’d see The Grand Canyon, and we’d end up in San Diego where Shawn had a friend she wanted to see. Other than this, we didn’t know where we were going. We were gone for over two weeks.
It was a great trip and we saw and did things we didn’t expect to do and see. We still think and talk about it today — and look at the pictures.
This is one way we should view LIFE. We know the basic direction we will go, and maybe a couple of GOALS we want to achieve. But the rest should be left up to imagination and desire. LIFE shouldn’t be etched in stone. LIFE should not be like we are on a train track and can only go one way.
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”
Robert’s poem is a popular one and it produces some thoughts about the road we are on in LIFE, and if it’s the right road. Here is his poem:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same.
And both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
As The Gospel Life Coach, I use this talking about ‘THE GOSPEL ROAD’ that God wants us all walking on. It’s paved with his love, grace, forgiveness, blessings, and all his other ‘good news of good things.’
Should Part of Life Be Like A Destination?
It is important to have goals, which is part of what this series of articles is about. I tried three other course-directions in college, none of which I liked. I wound up in psychology.
But the point is we all need direction in life toward some destination. I’ve mentioned I don’t like numbers, but my wife Eileen is a great accountant and loves numbers. We’re all different. Besides, she has taken over our family bills, books, taxes, etc. that has saved me a lot of misery. And she loves it!
This can be translated: “If you don’t like numbers don’t be an accountant.”
Don’t be like Alice in Wonderland: not knowing where you are going.
And life does have a termination and an end we shouldn’t be ignorant about. If we are smart, we take this into consideration too. It is said, “Life is just one thing after another — and then you die.” The point was made earlier: LIFE is only a temporary assignment.
Living LIFE to the Max, Label, Laughing & Loving
LIFE. Life is just meant for living it to the max, in any way that makes sense to us at the time. And we shouldn’t be married to some choice we made in college as a kid. I was a lawyer for 25 years. Then I became a western United States coach tour guide for 8 years. Then my family purchased a wedding venue that we manage and operate. The point is you don’t have to be married to the same vision your whole life. LIFE IS A JOURNEY!
LABEL. This is how we see ourselves — how we ‘label’ ourselves. The bottom line is what are you most comfortable doing, and what do you enjoy doing the most? Like the example of ice cream, there are more choices in life than we could ever possibly begin to list and number. This part is our BEING. We should be more ‘human-beings’ than ‘human-doings.’ What are you most captivated by? — at least at the moment? You don’t have to ride the same horse into the grave.
LAUGHING. Then there is the matter of LAUGHING. Sometimes we get so focused, and so directed in life that we forget to laugh. “Laughter won’t remove the bumps of life, but it will smooth them out some.” There are countless articles about being more light-hearted, and how we should laugh more. Life is no laughing matter, but laughter sure does make life easier to travel. We shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously.
LOVING. Really, loving should be first. If we love, God, ourselves, and others, then all of life flows so much easier. The song says, “What the World Needs Now Is Love.” Jesus says to love God, and then, “Love others — as I have loved you.” Of course, he also says ‘Love others as yourself.’ He doesn’t mean a conceited, prideful type of love, but a love born in God’s love for us that we then freely give away. “You have freely received, so freely give.”
Are you on the right journey in LIFE?
THE PRIOR THREE ARTICLES (click on any you want to see): Goals: INTRODUCTION Goals Article One: GOOD Goals Article Two: OFFER Goals Article Three: ABUNDANCE