Do you sometimes have a tough time choosing? I had this conversation with a woman in the grocery store last week, as we stood in the cereal aisle (with overwhelmed looks on our faces, I'm sure) pondering the literally hundreds of available options. According to chacha.com, there are currently 387 different kinds of breakfast cereal on the market, each pulling your eye and your stomach in a different direction. Exponentially multiply this scenario and you have life in our country in 2013. Any wonder you experience some indecision?
The day-to-day, mundane choices are difficult enough, let alone the ones with greater implications, but a moment of clarity a few years back led to a realization that, for me, was an aha of some magnitude. What I realized was that what had previously felt like a lack of clarity and indecisiveness on my part was arising from the fundamental nonexistence of a "framework" from which to make my choices. I had no idea of just what the point was... and how can you possibly decide which way to go when you don't know where you want to end up?
Armed with this new awareness in the grocery store, I made some decisions. My framework became highest nutritional content which, after some information-gathering, then made my selection a fairly simple one. So what was my framework going to be when making choices with more far-reaching consequences? Quite simply, for me, it was to redefine the purpose - the framework - of my life. I discovered it, summarized eloquently as always, by Deepak Chopra in his assessment of the true purpose of each of our lives: "we are alive to love and be loved, to seek our highest calling, and to seek enlightenment". In light of this framework, every challenging decision now becomes an opportunity to ask, "Is it loving? Is it advancing my path? Is it leading to growth and understanding?" This doesn't always mean that decisions (or their consequences!) are easy, or that I always make them well, but it sure does pare down the mind-blowing array of options.
And Lucky Charms are quite simply no longer an option.
The day-to-day, mundane choices are difficult enough, let alone the ones with greater implications, but a moment of clarity a few years back led to a realization that, for me, was an aha of some magnitude. What I realized was that what had previously felt like a lack of clarity and indecisiveness on my part was arising from the fundamental nonexistence of a "framework" from which to make my choices. I had no idea of just what the point was... and how can you possibly decide which way to go when you don't know where you want to end up?
Armed with this new awareness in the grocery store, I made some decisions. My framework became highest nutritional content which, after some information-gathering, then made my selection a fairly simple one. So what was my framework going to be when making choices with more far-reaching consequences? Quite simply, for me, it was to redefine the purpose - the framework - of my life. I discovered it, summarized eloquently as always, by Deepak Chopra in his assessment of the true purpose of each of our lives: "we are alive to love and be loved, to seek our highest calling, and to seek enlightenment". In light of this framework, every challenging decision now becomes an opportunity to ask, "Is it loving? Is it advancing my path? Is it leading to growth and understanding?" This doesn't always mean that decisions (or their consequences!) are easy, or that I always make them well, but it sure does pare down the mind-blowing array of options.
And Lucky Charms are quite simply no longer an option.