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Choices

Are You Making the Best Ones for Your Happiness?


Every day we make countless choices. We decide whether to have a cup of coffee, or to have two cups. We decide whether to put on a sweatshirt, or to grab a sweater. We decide whether to call a friend we've been thinking about, or to put it off til later.


Many choices don't have any long-lasting consequences. But many do. And they have that effect because they reinforce a pattern of behavior or thinking.


For example, Abraham Lincoln said,"We do not complain because rose bushes have thorns; we rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." Focusing on the thorns, or focusing on the roses is a choice we make. One makes us unhappy; one makes us happy. My thoughts today are to implore you to make choices that make you feel good, rather than sad, or angry, or frustrated.


There is a classic story of a woman who was losing her hair. One day, when she looked in the mirror, she only had six hairs left. She said, "I think I'll part my hair in the middle today." A couple of days later she saw that there were only four hairs. She said, "I think I'll wear pigtails today."

When she was down to three, she decided to wear them as a braid. And when they were finally all gone, she looked in the mirror, and smiled, and said, "I don't have to fix my hair today."


That woman had learned the habit of being positive about life. She made the choice to find the good in a situation. Another way of reinforcing the habit of looking for the good in a situation is to make expressions that are positive, rather than negative. You can say the same thing, but in a better way,


For example, how about saying, "I have decided to eliminate gluten from my diet," instead of complaining that, "I can't have anything with gluten anymore."


Instead of saying, "Oh, man, it's raining," you can say, "Isn't it great that we're getting more rain. I don't have to run the sprinklers," or, as the farmers say happily in the Midwest, "this is great for the corn!"



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