May 2016 – Choosing Means – 09

Today’s card says: Just because things aren’t going as planned doesn’t mean you don’t get to choose anymore. At any moment you can choose to self-correct and choose a different path.

This is something I don’t remember often enough. I often think of that quote about man making plans, and God laughing. As a planner, I like to always think that I am in control of my life. That if I plan things, worry about things, be specific about my choices, etc. things will work out as I anticipated. But of course they do sometimes and they don’t other times and it has a lot less to do with me than it might seem. Either way, when things don’t go as planned, it’s so easy to just give up and assume that nothing is now up to you.

This is a reminder to me that I always have moments of choice. Even when one thing happens outside of expectations, I still get to recalibrate in this new moment and make more choices. At a minimum, I can choose to accept this moment. I can choose to be present with it. This is what’s here now and I can step into it.

But I can also still change things. I can decide what I want next and how to get there. I can say “ok this happened, it wasn’t what I wanted but here we are. Now I will do this other thing.” or what would it take me to be ok with this? what would i like to do/feel next. I get to choose how I feel about things. I get to choose what things mean. I get to choose so many things at every moment. When things don’t go just right, it’s easy to forget that I have these moments of choice. But they are always there and always with me.

It’s never too late for it to be what it might have been. It’s never too late to start. It’s never too late to stop. To give in, to keep going, to give up, to push forward, to apologize, to accept an apology, to change course, to pick a new life. To create new values. To find friends, love, kindness, etc. It’s just never too late for anything. And I want to remember that. I want to remember that I have millions of moments of choice all day long.

I am so grateful for those moments.

Choosing Means is a Monthly Project for May 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.