Life is, more or less, a set of principled decisions which, in turn, seem to define the unique story of one’s life. They are the proof that there is no such thing as a “predestined” life and that everything lies upon the endless decisions we make every single day in order to define the course of life the way we personally wish.
Intertwined with the conscious adoption of a growth mindset, decision is the crucial means to achieve whatever one wishes, no matter how impossible a dream or a goal might seem. In short, decision is the boat to cross the river from the spectrum of theory to the spectrum of action; it is all what it takes to successfully connect the subjectivity of dreams and ambitions with the otherwise objective reality in the world we are currently living.
Therefore, it goes without saying that decisions are of crucial importance provided that someone wishes to lead a life full of joyful moments and meaningful experiences making it worth living.
There are times when decision making seems to be intimidating and definitive; be it either choosing which college or university to attend, what career path to follow, making the brave decision to free yourself from the toxic relationship you are trapped in, leaving that job because it isn’t in alignment with your idiosyncrasy and your integrity or whether to live in your comfort zone in the place you’ve grown up and have set your life or simply ignore everything and follow the love of your life to the other edge of the country.
Been there, done that. Is there actually a decision that has completely transformed my life? It’s hard to say. Every single decision we make is as important as every single moment we are alive and breathing.
Someone might say that choosing what to eat for breakfast isn’t seemingly that important after all, but is it, indeed? What we eat defines at a great extent our health condition. Choosing which film to watch or which book to read contributes to the formation of our thoughts and, possibly, the next “eureka moment”. Choosing to go for that coffee with the person you met the other day might lead to the realization that you have found your significant other. Even going for that walk in the woods could prevent you from the dangerous path of anxiety and depression.
If I had to choose which decision has genuinely changed my life, that would be the decision to fully respect and love myself. Before accepting and embracing the gift of life that has so generously been given to me, all I ever did was to live my life in misery knowing that something was deadly wrong. I would make all the more wrong and unwise decisions perpetuating a vicious cycle which made me feel trapped in the wrong direction. I wouldn’t be able to appreciate all the good stuff going on in my life and I would blame every other external factor for my misery but myself.
However, there came the time when I said “Enough is enough!”. I realized that I was responsible for everything that is taking place in my life and all the bad stuff happening to me were unconsciously bad decisions derived from my insecurities and fear of not being good enough. So, it was time for me to break the wheel of every negative aspect simply by making the wise decision to love and respect myself.
It took me a long time to pull myself together but ever since I decided to love myself, everything magically changed positively. For the first time in my life, I introduced myself to self-care and I learnt how to get things prioritized in such a way that I would be able to accomplish whatever responsibilities I was assigned.
It was that decision which initiated me to the world of gratitude, which I have now adopted as a stance of life. It was that decision which eventually made me realize that, in order to walk the path of my personal self-actualization, I should first be willing to embrace life out of my comfort zone. It was that decision which helped me understand that there is no such thing as the interpretation of “ I can’t” but rather “ I don’t want to”. It was that decision which made me realize my full potentials and that every single day is a new day with countless opportunities to exploit and benefit from if I really wanted to make progress.
In other words, it was the decision to fully love and respect myself and my life that paved the way for the wisdom as well as the determination to start making the right decisions. However, as I previously stated, I don’t think there is this one and only decision which can change my life or any other person’s life for that matter; there is, rather, a decision constituting the cornerstone of making the right decisions, which are all, eventually, equally important.