It is not what happens to us that defines our life, but how we choose to respond to what happens to us. It is our relationship to that experience that allows us to either emerge as a victim of circumstance or as an empowered learner from experience.
And what moves us away from victimhood and towards empowerment is recognizing that we always, always, always have a choice about how we will respond to anyone and everything in our lives. I was reminded this week of one of Dumbledore’s wise quotes about choice:
“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” Dumbledore from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
This is a powerful truth. Think about it — we spend much of our life developing our abilities and measuring ourselves according to where we are in the spectrum of inept to masterful. We often come up short in our own placement on that spectrum.
Shifting from where we are on the abilities scale, to the full conscious awareness of our daily, hourly, by the minute choices and how they create our lives, gives us the power to literally transform our lives daily, hourly, by the minute.
We all have heard stories of those with very few resources climbing the highest mountain of success, however they define success. The results in these people’s lives come directly from the choices they have made about what to do with what they have been given.
What might you choose today, that could potentially change the trajectory of your health, relationships, career? What things, consistently chosen, would enhance and literally transform your total life experience into what you hope and dream it could be?
We have the power within us to shape our days and create the lives we long for. Remembering and using that power makes all the difference.
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