Do you make strong choices? Most of us are lucky that we have a lot of choices available to us. We can choose to take care of ourselves. We can choose to do Pilates. We can choose to take a walk to deal with stress instead of eating out of stress. This is the time of year it gets harder to feel like we can make the right choices for ourselves. There are often more things to choose from. There are often more people involved in the choices. But we still have to take ourselves into account when making these choices.

I see life as a series of choices. Each day we get a fresh set of choices and we get to choose what to do with those choices presented to us. We can choose to be nice. We can choose to be stressed. We can choose to listen to our bodies. We can make positive or negative choices. We all have the opportunity to make good choices everyday.
Sometimes choices are made for us. But it is up to us to make the best decision with what we are left to choose from. I saw a beautiful flower growing in the crease of the sidewalk next to a concrete wall last spring. I marveled at its ability to thrive despite its obviously tough circumstances. This flower did not choose to be planted in a barren place. But the flower did choose to grow despite its circumstances. We may not always have the best resources to make something out of our lives but it does not mean that we can’t thrive despite our circumstances.

I am not perfect. I do not always make the best choices. But I do my best to make strong choices each day. I commit fully to what I am doing with my life. I take risks to be better. I am pushing myself out of that comfortable crease in the sidewalk to find the light I know is out there. When I have taken a risk and made a big uncomfortable choice that is when my obstacles started to move. That was when my life became more of what I wanted it to be and less things just happening to me. You may not get all the choices in the world available to you. But you do have a choice. Make a strong one.