How do the choices you make affect you?
ByI was just watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with some friends who are visiting.
I was really struck the final quote from Professor Dumbledore - “We are not defined by our abilities, but by the choices we make.”
It set me thinking about the choices that I make, and what they say about me. In the past I definitely made a lot of choices that didn’t seem to be the best for me – but as I look back, I can see the great lessons that I learned from some of those experiences. It is from some of the more difficult experiences of my life that I have learnt some of the greatest lessons. Yet I can see if I had not learnt those lessons, and had carried on making the same choices that I had before, I would be experiencing life in very different ways now – I would be drinking too much, partying too hard and not giving myself the time and space to reflect and to deepen my spiritual connection. It takes practice and constant choice to do the things which I know nurture me in deep ways.
I don’t know what I might have been and done if I had made different choices when I was younger. I was watching some of the World Athletics Championships over the weekend, which is always really inspiring to me. I’m not sure that I did have the ability to be an athlete – there isn’t much to suggest that I did! – but watching those athletes, I was really aware of the choices that they made, that got them to where they are today. They would have to decide to get up and train whether they felt like it or not, to forgo some social events to train and to make choices about what to eat etc. They would also have to decide about whether they would use drugs – how that fits in with their personal standards of integrity. Whether winning at all costs is what matters to them, or whether it is something else that motivates.
One of the big areas in which I am challenged in the choices I make is in the area of health and fitness. I struggle to make healthy choices about the food that I eat and the amount of exercise that I take. I know what is best for me and what suits my system best, but I don’t always make the optimal choices. This affects me in many ways. I am heavier than I would like to be, and not as fit or supple as I could be. I can make up lots of stories about why this is, but basically it is down to the choices I make. The choices about what to eat, how I spend my time etc. If I am committed to changing, I need to make different choices. If I keep doing the same thing, I will keep getting the same results.
I find it really helpful to ask myself strong, empowering questions when I want to bring change about.
Questions such as – How can I improve the choices I make about the food I eat? What has worked for me when I have felt fitter in the past? What exercise do I really enjoy doing? What foods do I love, which I know are beneficial to me? How can I eat well when I am travelling? etc.
It also really helps me to have a partner to work with – either a friend, a coach or group – to whom I am accountable. If I commit tom doing something, I also check in with them as to whether I have achieved it or not.
Shifting some of the beliefs that I have held unconsciously about health and fitness has also helped me greatly to raise my vibrational level in this area, and to motivate me to make the changes that I want to.
In what areas of your life are you making choices that don’t support you being where you want to be in your life right now?
What can you do to improve the choices you make?
Do you have any beliefs in place about this area of your life that could be influencing the choices that you make? How can you shift those beliefs?
What choices do you now commit to making? Who are you accountable to in regard to these choices?
