Chocolate or Vanilla? (147/365)

10

May 27, 2015 – Life is about choices.

Some choices are good, some not-so-good.

Sometimes you have to choose the lesser of two evils.

And sometimes choices are delicious.

But ultimately, life is full of decisions.

Some people agonize over choices and decisions; everything is drama, and if a better outcome is perceived as a result of the choice they didn’t make….look out, it’s a catastrophe!

Some people don’t like to make choices, or flat out can’t. They float along, waiting for others to make choices or suggest decisions, agreeing with choices others make, but in the absence of other people, they may do little and seemingly avoid making any choices beyond the basic day to day things. I suppose the up-side of that is that if a poor choice is made they can blame someone for it and they can tell themselves that “Whew, lucky ‘I’ didn’t make that choice!”  “He did and I was just going along because he wanted to do that!”

But where’s the fun in that!

I think people who don’t make decisions are wishy-washy fence sitters who are either afraid of poor choices, have anxiety about the consequences, or are just plain apathetic and can’t be bothered to think.

I say make a choice, and go with it, and never regret it. Regretting decisions isn’t worthwhile. At best, learn from a poor choice, but there is an entire lifetime filled with choices both simple and difficult.

Even poor choices teach lessons.

Left or right. Up or down. Beer or wine. Fish or chicken. Cats or dogs. Cars or trucks. Automatic or manual. Cruiser or sport. Run or walk. Power or sail.

We define ourselves and others by choices.

That’s silly!

As it says in Wear Sunscreen “Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s”

In reality, while many of our choices and decisions are a quick assessment of risk vs reward, many are outside of our cognitive control. We think we have free will and make choices based on that freedom, but our associations, what we read, what information we let in, and how we choose to filter it….that colours our decision process. We aren’t the free thinkers we think we are. Barry Schwartz has an interesting Ted talk on the subject.

You can choose to watch it………or not.

I think some choices are more difficult today than they were when I was a child. I don’t envy kids these days. Choosing a career? Wow, the choices are so diverse that I think many just don’t choose. I did some high school science mentoring and the kids were being pushed to make a career choice in grade 10. I didn’t know what I wanted to do until after I’d finished my Bachelors degree…and even then…I was still adjusting the sails on that choice for two more degrees after the fact!

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

Yes, it’s true, our choices say a great deal about our character. Not making choices at all says much, and poor choices aren’t (usually) the end of the world.

A not-so-wise man I used to work with once (and only once) uttered something magnificently wise on a moment when a difference of opinion was encountered.

“And that’s why they make chocolate and vanilla….”

But chocolate or vanilla?

That’s an easy choice……….isn’t it?