Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Choices

'Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.'

Choices are a part of life. Every minute you are to make a choice. To either do this or to do that, but what happens when the choices are such that don’t just change the moment but the life ahead of you? Such are choices that scare people, which bring about confusion, anticipation and a gamut of other emotions? Thinking about a few things and the choices that have been made till now and the choices that will have to be made in the future, got me thinking and dwelling into deeper issues and reasoning’s. The two main choices, we assume that change the way our life goes, the way we lead it, depends upon our academic (career) choices, and our choices in relationships.

What does our tomorrow bring, what does it hold for us and what is the reason for tomorrow happening the way it does? Our life is based broadly on joys and sorrows, on happiness and sadness, on loss and gain, on belief and disbelief, on right and on wrong.

'We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them'

Everything that transpires in our life is ultimately because of our choice. Some people may blame their decision on someone else or say they were influenced but it still remains their choice, because it was their decision, them choosing to go by the others decision. Subconsciously or consciously we are always deciding the path for tomorrow, whether it is the way we want it to be or the complete opposite.

Each morning is a new day and each morning we choose whether we want to take a decision, make the choice to move forward or to just let it all go, like a river that will never again touch the shore. There are many moments in our lives when we find ourselves at a crossroad, at the T junction, anxious, perplexed, without a roadmap. The choices we make then, in that very moment, set path for everything ahead.

The most important thing in life, and maybe even the simplest but contradictorily one that is toughest to do is to stand by your choices, to accept them and to honor them. To think through them so that tomorrow, when things don’t work out there might be disappointment but no regret.

10 comments:

Kanta said...

Good post. You are right before we make a choice we always think about how it will make the people in our life? We never first think is the choice I am making better for me? This is what I need to do to make myself happy.

Shruti Chopra said...

K, the crux of the matter for me always remains that whatever choice you make don't ever regret it. Hence make it yourself so that tomorrow you don't have an excuse for it!

Anonymous said...

You seem to suggest life is cent percent all about choices. I'd beg to differ. I'd say its 99% choice(s) 1% chance ...

Shruti Chopra said...

I agree with the fact that 1% is chance but how you convert that chance into something worthwhile or just the opposite is a choice!

There are a lot of factors that go into making life but the underlying fact always remains this or that - which is a choice!

That is where my entire article, if I may call it so, came from!

Doesn't matter said...

jee... gyan baba.. ok.. nice post.. but honestly, i am not intellectually sound enough to understand.. boss, kya ho raha hai? are u planning to get into psychology now? law is not bad after all? or is it?

Anonymous said...

Hmm .. okay .. I will get back to you on that , because I'm still not 100% in agreement that the conversion of every chance in2 something worthwhile or otherwise is a choice, though by and large I agree that it is, but not always..

Kanta said...

Sometimes choices are made depending on your circumstances at the time. It's human nature when things don't go as planned, you think may be I shouldn't have done this. The thing to remember is that what is done is done. You learn from what went wrong and move on. Life is about making choices, learning from it and moving on. It's when you harper on what went wrong and want to try and make it right, is a wrong choice to make.

Anonymous said...

Shruti,

Nice post, reminds me of Robert Frost's 'The road not taken' -

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.


We all go through life regretting about a choice we have made, any one who thinks that they have a 'Choice' in the matter of not regretting is indeed fooling themselves.

I recently talked to some Germans who settled in US about the holocaust, and one of them had tears in his eyes...he said he made a choice to shut his mouth about the atrocities committed against the jews during Hitler's regime and a day doesn't go by without regretting the choice he made to be 'selfish' to protect his own family and not defend the Jews.

Courage, Circumstance play a big role in making choices. If it's chinese food or Indian food, the choice may be easy, but choosing between two colleges is a little harder. Tuition, placement, location, community, teacher to student ratio are the factors that you consider before making the Choice!

Sorry for the long comment!

Unknown said...

Shruti,

I agree that it's our choices that make us who we are. But I disagree with the point that it's all about choices, other things play an important role as well, like fate, destiny, luck etc. (whether you believe in it or not).

The biggest problem of our life is we always tend to think about the future, what we should do now to make the future better, but we always forget to concentrate on the present.

As long as our choices make us happy and content it shouldn't matter what tomorrow brings upon us. It's not about the outcome, it's about how we feel when we made the choice and how we feel after.

Our main goal should be to just do the right thing in the present and not worry too much about the future, that in my opinion is the best choice we can make. Because with that we always have this positive attitude, the attitude that we can change anything in just a moment's notice without thinking too much.

Okay i am going to stop now!!! I hope you enjoyed my ramblings. hehe.

Pooja said...

Nice Post, I think its not all about choices, there are other things too...circumstance, fate, luck, destiny...

But one thing that I stand by is that a choice one makes should not leave the person with regret, as it was their own...