S5 Ep18: You Get to Make Choices and Decisions

self-awarenessmindfulnesslife lessonsawarenessconscious awarenessgratitudechoices and decisions

Jun 28

There are always choices and decisions being made

According to multiple sources, human beings make over 30,000 choices A DAY. That is a lot of choices.

But for the most part, you don’t make them consciously. Let’s face it, if you did, I think you’d probably go mad. Thirty-thousand-plus choices, per day, add up fast. That means that in a 30-day month, you make 900,000 choices. Hence, per year you’re making more than 11 million choices.

It’s a very good thing that so many of the choices you make are automated.

Recognize and acknowledge the levels

When you get down to it, choices and decisions come in four sizes. They are big, medium, small, and seemingly insignificant.

Big choices include major life-changing things like marriage and divorce, moving, college education, bariatric surgery, and the like.

Medium choices include big purchases, vacations, buying and selling stocks, and so on.

Small choices include stuff like choosing what to wear today, where to go to dinner, the route you take from point “a” to point “b”, etc.

Seemingly insignificant choices are the most rote, routine, and subconscious. This includes choices and decisions about when to get out of bed, scrolling social media, what you eat and drink, how you brush your teeth, what tabs you leave open on your browsers, and other seemingly insignificant matters.

Nothing you choose is truly insignificant. Because they’re so numerous, they’re far more important than we often credit them for.

Life’s choices and decisions are yours to make

When it comes to being consciously aware of choices, most people focus only on the big and medium choices. While they are impactful, they’re the tip of the iceberg. That’s because below the visible are the small and seemingly insignificant choices. They are the base structure on which the medium and big choices are based and made.

Mindfulness puts you in the driver’s seat. You can use your knowledge of your thoughts, feelings, actions, intentions, and approaches to alter your choices. The power is wholly yours.

Your choices and decisions factor into everything you do. Big, medium, small, seemingly insignificant, and everything in between, you have the power to use conscious awareness and mindfulness to choose. That can change your life for the better.

Unfortunately, you live in a fear-based society disempowering you at every turn. False notions of lack, scarcity, and insufficiency are bombarding you to believe that you can do little to nothing to take control or make useful choices and decisions.

Nothing could be further from the truth. You have the power.

This week’s Applied Guidance for Mindfulness Tool:

For the next 5 days, every morning, take one thing a day that falls under “seemingly insignificant choices” and actively, consciously make a choice or decision about it.

This can include changing how you brush your teeth, what time you eat, what you eat, any habitual action you could change but don’t necessarily need to.

Observe how you feel throughout the day about making choices and decisions. Has altering that “seemingly insignificant choice” made the making of other choices and decisions, actively, easier?

Consider if this has a positive impact on your self-awareness continuing to apply it.