Are You Choosing The Right Choice?

“There are 2 primary choices in life: to simply accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” - Dennis Waitley

I was recently standing in a incredibly long, slow moving security line at an airport. One would imagine I would be so numb towards the manner that the “long and slow moving” part wouldn't be an topic any longer. A few days it isn’t, but this day, virtually everything about the “long and slow moving” part was an subject with me. As I was seemingly inching my way along, I happened to glance behind me for what had to be a slight part of a second. It took a few moments to record, but my mind was telling me that something just wasn’t quite “normal” about what I saw. Now, we have all been in this spot. You want to stare once more at whatever caught your eye - however you don’t want to be too conspicuous, right? You don’t want to get caught staring at something - or worse, someone. As a result I did my absolute best non-obvious casual spin of my head behind me and it became pretty clear why I wanted to gaze again.

Standing there was a childish young man approximately the age of ten or so. To stare at his appearance, you would imagine he was a billboard child for a Norman Rockwell painting - red curly locks, freckles and all. He looked up at me with his immediately infectious beam, and when our eyes met I just said, “Howdy, pardner!” He somewhat bashfully acknowledged my greeting, and that's when I acknowledged that this was not just a few ordinary kid. Much to my astonishment, protruding from the tops of BOTH of his Nike running footwear were 2 titanium legs. As if that weren’t enough to get my notice, there was not anything below his left elbow where his arm was “supposed” to be. Well, we ambled along for quite awhile in that line before I could muster up the braveness to inquire him where he was headed. He explained to me he was planning to go see his grandma in Missoula, Montana, for a week. I asked him what he was seeing do up there, and he said he hoped to perform some fly fishing and ATV riding with his grandpa. Unexpectedly, the security line didn’t seem so long.

Before he went his way and I went mine, I finally asked him if he had some thought how many people he inspired on a every day basis. I could tell from his response he was far too humble and naive to realize what I was asking. Consequently I simply said, “Well, you surely moved one today. Have a terrific journey, and catch some lunkers.”

You see, it dawned on me that this childish MAN has more problems to deal with before he gets out of bed each day than I have had in my entire 56 years on this earth. What was so evident was that he wasn’t going to put up with his conditions as they existed. It was very understandable he had already accepted the task for taking his conditions and state and DETERMINING WHAT HIS REALITY WAS GOING TO BE. What a large lesson! The teachings are all around us each and everyday if we are open to seeing them.

And what about us? What choices will we make in our careers? It’s humorous if you think about the fact that the only selection we don’t have is not to make choices. Let’s decide intelligently.