Things To Consider Today

Consequences Of Decisions 

Each of us have a great gift of life called freedom of choice. Some people have more freedom than others and thus they should be held more responsible for how they run their lives. But there is one thing that applies to everyone. You are responsible for what you do with your freedom of choice. And the reason for this is because there are consequences for everything you do. What you think, say, or do has consequences. These consequences affect not only you, but other people. No one can escape this universal reality of life. There are many choices placed before us each day. Consider the thoughts you choose to dwell on, the things you choose to say, and the behavior you choose to exhibit. Each of these involve choices and decisions, with resultant consequences. For example, you have filthy thoughts and soon filthy speech and behavior follow. In essence you become a filthy person.

Thoughts, speech, and actions influence other things like where you choose to go, what you choose to do, and who you choose to associate with on a regular basis. They influence dating and social life, marriage and parenting, job training and career, and financial decisions. There is no aspect of your life that is not affected by choices and decisions.

Consider the daily options placed before you and the resultant choices you make. These decisions do impact your life. Some of them are almost automatic or routine in nature so you pay little attention to them. But periodically you need to examine how well you’re making these types of decisions. Are they good ones and helping you as they should? They can become habitual in nature and over time lead to a less exciting and more boring life. They can stun your growth as an individual. Don’t let this happen to you.

Other decisions seem insignificant and have no long-term impact on your life. Thus, it’s easy to not pay a lot of attention to them. This could be a mistake because small decisions can reinforce one another and over a period of time have a significant impact upon your life. This impact is subtle on a daily basis, but ten years later, the consequences of these decisions are obvious. For example you can start drinking socially, but over time drink more often and eventually the alcohol has more control over you than you do over it. Another example is using credit cards occasionally, and then more often. Soon you are charging larger amounts and getting more into debt. Eventually you’re living off of them.

At times important decisions are placed before us. Who will you marry? What job training will you seek to make a living for yourself and contribute to family income? Will you take care of your health and reject things like illegal drugs? Will you let God into your life? Where will you choose to live? This list can go on and on. With each decision, you can consider the options and make the best choice at the time. Hopefully, things will turn out the way you expect and the wisdom of your choice will be confirmed to you over a period of time. It should be obvious that these types of decisions do not come up often. Likewise, once a decision like this is made, it will be hard to undo the consequences of your choice. You must live with your choice or strive to make adjustments along the way so there are less negative consequences. If this is not enough, you must reconsider what you decided and make a different choice. However, this does not bring back lost opportunities, nor the time, money and energy used in carrying out a past decision. What you did, you did. Now you have to move on and make the best of life you can.

Some people are foolish enough to think they can do what they want and escape some or most of the consequences of their choices. They can cheat on their marital partner and not get caught, but the quality of their marital relationship will deteriorate. If they do not change their ways, the happiness in their marriage will ultimately be gone. There is no way to escape this. Some people think they can avoid paying their full taxes and not get caught. Maybe they won’t get caught, but they will lose self-respect and part of their character in the process. There is always a negative consequence for negative behavior.

We all make mistakes and do not always make the best choices for ourselves. This is easy to see when we look back upon past decisions. Hindsight is usually quite clear. We often say to ourselves, why did I do that or make that choice? It is so obvious now that was not a good decision. What was I thinking of at the time? Just as the past is clearer today, today will be clearer in the future. So look at your life in the past and try to find habits, routines, patterns, beliefs, and attitudes which worked against you. Likewise look for things that worked for you. Then begin to make changes now so you will have more success in your activities and endeavors in the future. You will be happier with your relationships too. If you will pay the price to do this, your future will be better than your past. You will then be able to look back on today and be more contented with the life you’ve lead between today and that date in the future you choose to look at your past. And the reason you’ll be more contented is because you will have made better choices for yourself and others. You will have done more things right and less things wrong. Don’t you want this? Isn’t this the true sign of real progress in your life? I challenge you to make even better decisions in the future so your life becomes fuller and richer. Let there be more positive and good consequences of your decisions and less negative and bad consequences of decisions. Live your life this in this manner from this day forward, and help others do the same. You will make more progress and experience more true joy as the years pass by.

 

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Copyright 2009 Leland Pulley