The Choice
Author: Marc J. Beauchamp

To decide, to be at the level of choice, is to take responsibility for your life and to be in control of your life.
- Abbie M. Dale

According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary - choice suggests the opportunity or privilege of choosing freely.

The Key word being - freely. It’s all about freedom – the freedom to pick one thing over another. Are you freely making choices in your life?

Unfortunately, most of our decisions originate from the prison of the past. We make choices about the future but base our idea about what is possible on the past. We react out of old behaviors and past events that happened long ago. We carry these scars of the past into life, willing to tell anyone that asks or doesn’t ask about the bad hand we were dealt. This bond to the past creates the prison in which we live killing choice. We use these past events to justify our inaction here in the present.

The first step to true choice is knowing and internalizing that the past does not exist – it’s over. Be aware that most people are living their past into their future. That’s why you get an endless loop of the same results. I’m sure you’ve heard one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. True choice is having the ability to make a decision based upon the future, not the past.

Realize that you are a “meaning-making machine”. Your mind is constantly giving meaning to everything in your environment. The past is just that – the past. We assign a meaning to all the experiences of our life – you determine what that experience means. If you think you had a failed business venture – then you gave yourself the meaning of a “failed business venture” and vice versa. Remove the word failure from your vocabulary. There is no such thing as failure – only results. Learn from the results you create in your life.

I’m sure you’ve heard the story about how they catch monkeys in India. They build a small box just large enough for the monkey to fit his hand through - sideways. They then take a trip to the jungle and place some nice juicy bananas in the box. These are no ordinary bananas; they are really ripe and tasty, the kind of banana a monkey could hold onto forever. Now, as you know monkeys live for bananas. The monkey smells the banana and hesitantly puts his hand thru the sideway slot and grabs the bananas. His hand will not fit back thru the slot unless he drops the bananas. Now he’s got a dilemma, does he release the bananas and go free or hold on and go to the zoo for eternity? It’s an easy choice for a monkey and next time you go to the zoo say hello for me.

Guess what? If you haven’t released the past – You’re living your life like a monkey!

So the first step to true choice is removing the illusion of the past.

Now lets go to step two of true choice – responsibility. Responsibility begins with the willingness to BE cause in the matter of your life. You are causing your life on a perpetual basis whether you are conscious of it or not. Responsibility is taking ownership in the cause of your life.

Being responsible starts with the willingness to deal with a situation from the view of life that your are the generator of what you do, what you have and what you are. There is no middle ground in responsibility, you can’t say, “I think I am responsible for my life” you either believe you are or you choose to deny that you aren’t.

Responsibility is not burden, fault, praise, blame, credit, shame or guilt. In responsibility, there is no evaluation of good or bad, right or wrong. There is simply what’s so, and who you are willing to be in that area of your life. When you live from a context of being responsible you live from authentic freedom.

Cause (you)= freedom = choice

Now that you have the ability to choose freely, create choices that are aligned with what you want to create in your future. So the third and final step is to create a compelling future. Choosing into the future is your opportunity to write a new agreement with reality. Knowing that you create meaning for everything in your life, you now can create your own reality of what is, you now have the power to create the future. And making those choices aligned with your future today manifests them into reality tomorrow.

Most survive their lives by avoiding unhappiness rather than choosing happiness. By creating a future that draws you forward, that stirs your passion for life, you activate the ability to shape and form your choices. Ask meaningful questions like these:

What is the meaning of my life?
What is possible in my life?
What future would I create if I could not fail?
What impact do I want to have on my family, friends and community?
What do I love to do?
What in my life makes me feel complete?
What would make me an extraordinary person?
What do I want to accomplish in 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years?
How do I want my relationships to look?
How can I grow spiritually?

Get these answers down on paper they hold the key to your destiny. Create a new meaning for your life. Make sure that this new empowering future is in alignment with your values and beliefs. Be passionate about what you are going to create in your life. Review the list daily and see yourself achieving your possibilities for the future and then step into the actual experience of living out your goals. Engage your five senses in this experience. See, hear, feel, taste and smell the achievement of these possibilities you have created for your life.

Remember the keys to true choice:

1. Remove the limits of the past.
2. Take responsibility for your life.
3. Create a compelling future.

So here is the choice – you can decide to be a hostage to the past or creator of your future – well what’s it going to be?








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Marc J. Beauchamp is a NLP Practitioner and life empowerment coach. Coaching in clearing the past, leadership development, goal setting, and creating your mission in life. Please email me at marcjbeau@worldnet.att.net if you would like my free e-newsletter, POSSIBILITIES. Also email me if you would like 3 new exercises to help you leave the past behind.

2002, Marc J. Beauchamp. All Rights Reserved.

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