Choose Your Life
Life is about choices. This is not a new concept. We make choices almost from the day we are born. Granted, most choices are made for us until around the time we become teenagers, then,we are confronted with real, important choices that we have to make on our own. The choices only become more complicated as we get older, so try really hard to make good ones now.
EDUCATION AND DISCIPLINE
High school seems like the most important time in your life. In many ways it is. You have so much freedom and with it, responsibility. It’s time to think about what you want to do with your life. This is the first big choice you will make. It is a decision that should give you more choices. If you do really well in high school, you can choose to go to any college you like. If you don’t do well or drop out, you don’t have that choice. Maybe you’ll decide that college isn’t for you. Well, that’s your choice. You can do something else. The point is that you were a good student and you gave yourself choices.
If you do go to college, make it your first practice career. There are many temptations that can get you off track. Do you study or go to that party? Well, if your grades suffer, you decrease the choices available to you after college. If you do well, you can continue on to graduate work, a doctorate, law or medical school. Doing well in college gives you that choice. You may never use it but you have it.
EMPLOYMENT AND BEYOND
Once you graduate with your degree(s), you can choose your real career. With your education, you can work anywhere you like. You gave yourself that choice with your hard work. Be the best you can be at that important first job. Even if you find you don’t like it, be great at it. It looks good on a resumé and will give you more choices when you decide to move on. If you’re not a good employee, your references will suffer and you will not have as many choices for a new position. You’ll want to have choices.
Do you get married, get a pet, or have children? Do you eat well and exercise or sit on the couch with a cupcake? These are your choices. What effect will these and all other choices you make have on your life? Will they enable you or stop you from having other choices? What do you want? It’s your choice.
As you study and work and gain experience, keep in mind where your choices may lead you. Every decision should set you up for endless opportunities. When you visualize your future, it should continue to expand with choices. It should look like a tree with many branches, not a bare trunk. Sure, if you make a choice early and it turns out to be everything you hoped, a single path with satisfaction at the end is great. In fact, you’d be the luckiest person alive! But, set yourself up to be able to make that choice. Don’t limit yourself. Life is all about choices and, make no mistake, there’s always a choice.
