The past two days were my favourite time of the year…ALL Weekend! An annual girls trip I take with the two women I’ve known the longest in my life. We’ve been going on this annual trip for 16 years and we have the lovely routine of it down to a science…eat, drink, chat, snooze, repeat.
We always find the most random location, often a cute little cabin totally off the beaten track. This year there was also sheep, a hot tub, and Super Mario World…perfect.
The best part of these weekends are the chats. I’ve known these women so long and trust them with all of my being so the discussions are authentic, compassionate and deep which makes for some pretty cool insights and advice that I don’t always recognize in myself.
One of the big themes we talked about was choice. Decisions are often hard to make and sometimes we don’t even know what the options are. Sometimes it seems like there is no choice or all the options are too hard so we don’t make a choice at all…which ultimately, is also a choice.
I don’t know about you but sometimes I spend so much time thinking about a decision…agonizing over the pros and cons…the various alternatives…that when I finally make the decision, it’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Not making the decision takes up so much space in my head that when the decision has been made, I seem to free up an incrementally bigger share of mind.
And that. feels. awesome.
We also talked about empowerment and how making a choice feels empowering. Sometimes I won’t make a decision because I’m afraid of the affect on another person. But here’s the thing…I get to choose. I get to choose what’s right for me, what consequences and actions I’m prepared to face depending on the outcome of choice. It’s empowering for me to remember that I get to choose – that I have control over the decision.
It’s scary to take responsibility for the outcome of a choice.
If I get to choose which decision I make, I’m also choosing to take responsibility for the outcome. A frightening, sometimes unknown, responsibility to take on but worth the trade off of getting to choose.
Because, after all, there is power in choice.