You Have Two Choices

Your life is made up of the choices you make.

Your destiny is being decided every day. Every moment you are deciding who it is that you will become. And at the end the only person you can ultimately blame for where you ended up is yourself.

We are all given two choices in life. The choice to grow or surrender. When you are faced with challenges you’re being offered a choice. When life throws curves your way it’s testing you. Are you the kind of person who is going to fold or are you the kind of person that grows in response to challenge?

There is no third option. We like to think that there is but it’s nonexistent. There is no wait, no maybe. There is only win or fail. You either meet the challenge and become better from it or you let it weaken or even destroy you.

Many of us look for safe spots. For a place to rest in this world. Unfortunately except for those who have already built their empires there is no rest. This world is a sink or swim world. A eat or be eaten world.

This doesn’t mean you can’t have relationships or trust others. Having strong bonds with others are essential. What I am saying is that we all want an easy way. We all want to just crawl back under the covers. But that’s not an option anymore. The covers have been ripped off and we can either adjust and fight or surrender and become a slave. Safety is an illusion. The only guarantee there is in this life is that one day you will die. Everything else is up for grabs.

Stop chasing the illusion of safety. Go for something greater. Pursue strength and maybe safety will come. Pursue safety and you will eternally be grasping at straws. There will always be chaos it is the naturally state. Everything drifts towards chaos. Only by being acted upon can things stick together. Kill the dream of life being safe and easy. Maybe one day after creating your empire your life will be safe and easy but no empires are built without spilling blood and hard work.

Just about everything has the potential to better you. Getting fired, dumped, cheated on, beaten up, or whatever. Harness it, use it. Use it as fuel in the building process. To become unbreakable. You don’t have to let life beat you down. Fight back.

Forget easy, it was never there. It’s a lie. An illusion. Man up and step forward. Remember it’s up to you how it all turns out. You can’t escape the pressure. At some point it will be applied to you. Life doesn’t discriminate. The pressure will either harden you or destroy you.

I think by now you get the general idea. Life is a choice. The power to decide where we ultimately end up is in our hands. To become the superman we are all capable of becoming or be beaten down into submission and rejoin the ranks of the sheep.

However this doesn’t happen instantaneously. It is a process, the process of growth.

When you think of the process of change or growth what do you think of? Smoothness and easiness? Or struggle and pain? Whenever I think of the process of change I think of a quote by Rory Miller in his book Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence “Why is a caterpillar wrapped in silk when it changes into a butterfly? So the other caterpillars can’t hear the screams”. Change is a volatile and hard process. At least the good kind of change is. The weakening gradual kind of change is easy. Negative changes require nothing of you.

So remember ultimately it’s up to you. At first this will seem daunting. Having the responsibility for your life. It’s a huge responsibility but one that must be carried by you and by you alone. However look at it like this. You have the choice. It’s not up to other people. Because you have the choice you can grow, you can change.

Whatever problem or situation you are in. You can fight or dig yourself out of it. You can grow out of it. Because again it is your choice. Once you buckle down and take responsibility the good feelings will come. Because you will have something that most people never realize that they have. Control. Not control over what happens in your life or how others will react to you. No control over something greater. Control over yourself.

And ultimately it is that control over yourself that matters. It is that control over your choices that will guide you to the land of your dreams or if you let it smash you against the rocks and send you down to the depths. Freedom is a choice. Choose to reclaim your freedom.

It is up to you.

Become the best man you can be.

If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it. You can follow me on Twitter here.

-Charles Sledge

 

Charles Sledge