Good Choices

I want to make good choices in life.  If someone insults me for some reason, I don’t want to get defensive and insult him or her in return; rather, I’d like to figure out what was going on and try to help the person out.  If I get an opportunity to do something that benefits me through means that are anything but honorable and honest, I’d like to choose not to do that something and hold on to my integrity.  If I have the choice to do something positive for someone else, I’d like to think that I’d choose to do so, no matter what other people may think of me doing so.

It seems that there are always several sides to every choice we have to make.  There’s the side that gives us gratification and/or enjoyment–especially on the short-term–and there’s the side that we know is right and proper.  Sometimes those two sides coincide.  Often they don’t.
So what goes into my decision-making when I’m faced with doing something that I know is right versus doing something because I’m trying to save face or make myself look good?  Why are so many decisions so difficult to make when we really know what should be done?

I think that good choices come about when we worry less about results and more about what goes into our decision.  After all, don’t we make some bad decisions because we’re trying to make sure that the results are what we want them to be?

But how often do those decisions backfire on us, precisely because our motivation was not what we knew to be right or honest, but what was most expedient or what promised the most fortuitous results for us personally?

Good choices are one of the key ingredients to a full and happy life.  They don’t come easy, though, given all of the influences that try to convince us to make choices that we may not want to make.  One day I hope that all of my choices come from the heart, and come from a place of integrity.  I hope that they’re made with the best for everyone in mind, no matter what others may think of my choices or what results they may have for me.  Because if they don’t come from a sincere desire to do good, then the concept of “freedom of choice” means nothing to us or for us.  And what a shame it would be to have such a freedom and not exercise it to the fullest!

What is right is often forgotten by what is convenient.

Bodie Thoene