As WE Are

Today's whiteboard quote:

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."
~Anais Nin

I think most of us have a love/hate relationship with sayings and concepts like the one above. On one hand, it gives us the opportunity to change our lives in an instant, just by changing our outlook, and as a result of that shift in perception, to make future decisions that work "toward hope, instead of away from fear" (according to my undergraduate Learning & Behavior prof), and that will make our external lives better, bit by bit, until we one day raise our heads and look around and realize that we can't quite remember what it really felt like to be as unhappy as we could swear we once were....

Man, that sure was a run-on sentence.

But on the other hand, it also puts the pressure on us to choose how we want to live, and to choose how we want our lives to be. Once you realize that there is a choice, how can you justify making the choice to be unhappy? Also, once you realize there's a choice, how can you justify not doing things to improve the world, in whatever small or large way(s) that you can?

So having that power isn't necessarily always a good thing, from our own perspectives.

I know that I often sigh in begrudging frustration when it occurs to me, after a bad day or a fight or an unproductive week, when I'm feeling bad about myself anyway, that the whole thing is mostly, if not all, my own fault.

Yes, things happen that are outside of our control. But how we handle them is always within our control.

Dang.

So, with this knowledge of choice in my arsenal, I'm off to make my goals for the day, the week, the month (or, until I forget and need to be reminded again :) )

How will you choose to be?