Choose

Not choosing is a choice.

And choice is the first step to commitment. Want to be committed to your dreams, your goals, your vision? It all starts with choice.

Truth is, sometimes it’s hard to choose. Remember back when you were a kid, and you were making an early buying decision? It felt really important, this choice, and you didn’t want to make the wrong one. You may have been buying a toy, candy, or some other special treat. You only had enough to get one of whatever it was. How did you choose? Maybe you were clear and focused, but maybe, when you went into the store, you were bombarded by all the choices, each one more enticing than the last. You changed your mind, only to change it again when the next enticing thing came into your view.

I like to call this Bright Shiny Object Syndrome. I see it in my clients, as they are faced with so many possibilities. Sometimes this shows up as:

• “ I could do this… or maybe I might do that.”

• “People say I should do X, but I don’t know. There is so much more out there to consider.” Or even…

• “I’m stuck.”

So they don’t choose, and the not-choosing becomes their choice.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you may be faced with making a difficult choice. Perhaps it is something you aren’t eager to do, or something you don’t fully believe in. It may be something you have been asked to do that is not what you would choose, left on your own. It may be choosing to do the hard stuff.

Recently, I have been faced with the rather daunting task of having some difficult conversations. I truly do not want to have to do this, so I have been dragging my heels, and the result of my not choosing to forge ahead? It’s beginning to feel a little bit like pulling that band-aid off – slowly and painfully. My not-choosing to do make the calls is keeping from moving forward. What could shift if I could just chose to have these conversations with compassion, understanding and care for the people I am talking to? I can make a difference just by choosing differently.

Not choosing is actually choosing by default, rather than by design.

Now it’s your turn – what is choosing by not-choosing costing you?