Animals, at least non-human ones, don’t really make free choices. They simply react according to their instinct. They are not free to reason and choose differently. There is no moral dimension of what an animal “should” do. They just do.
Humans, on the other hand, are a different kind of animal. We have and make free choices. By our very nature, we are made to choose. This is what gives our life so much purpose. We are here to make important choices.
These days, however, we mindlessly fill our lives with noisy distractions and busy ourselves with endless activities. We find ourselves simply reacting to a never-ending string of stimulations. Constantly tied up with the urgent and never quite getting to the important. Life seems to just be happening to us, rather than the other way around. We often feel overwhelmed and helpless.
But we aren’t helpless. The reason we feel this way is that we refuse to choose. We refuse to choose one activity over another, so we try to do both. We refuse to choose one priority over another, leaving us with no priorities at all. We refuse to deny one want over another, so we find ourselves impossibly committed.
We refuse to choose a quiet moment of contemplation at the beginning of our day where we decide what we will do today and what we will let go.
There is peace in letting go of good things so you’re free to choose the best things. But it requires being decisive and making the choice. Nobody will make it for you.
You were made to live intentionally. You were made to choose how you live your life, not to let life simply happen to you.
How many of your good habits were formed by accident? Not many. Bad habits are the result of allowing life to happen to you. Bad habits just happen. Good habits don’t. If life is just happening to you, then you’re caught up in the mire and mediocrity of accidental living.
An accidental life will never be fulfilling to a creature that was made to choose.
Seize hold of your day. Right now. Choose what is most important to you today and do it! Say no to the rest. Live intentionally. It is the only way you will change your bad habits. It is the only way you will live the radical life you were made to live. You were made to make big, courageous choices. So make them.
“The ability to choose cannot be taken away or even given away—it can only be forgotten.” – Greg Mckeown
