The overwhelming reality of choice today

Choice is not a thing. Our options may be things, but choice is an action ~Greg McKeown

Living in the information age has its perks but a thread of events led to the inspiration to write this.

It’s an attempt to solve my indigestion problem around information and options encountered in my journey to discover the kind of person I’d like to be in society.

Over time, I weaved a messy tapestry in an attempt to do it all and prioritize everything.

It’s safe to say I buried myself in desperation to experience every opportunity that arose.

I thought I was being proactive and a dream chaser until I lost sight of what mattered.

I felt myself continuously growing numb to what I was doing and in the end, nothing mattered at all. Not even my love for blogging or reading.

I thought, 'Well, this is crazy!'

I knew I had to do something about it but for a long time, I did not know what to do.

I grew an unhealthy notion that being busy equaled productivity.

The more I reflected on how I got here, I wound up to one conclusion.

Our society is structured in a manner that allows for oversaturation on what we ought to find important in our lives. This seeped into many aspects of my life and altered my psyche towards considering more meant good.

Busy, having no life is how many people live anyway and I followed suit.

The idea of being a busy bee came with a burden I was not prepared to bear. I failed to understand the importance of being in control of making my own decisions.

Most importantly, I could say no to things that did not matter.

This proved difficult in a society that condemned this behavior because everything matters.

It risked the choice of missing out on everything and no one wants to be left out.

Or so they say. The notion of being busy looked like allowing other people to bulldoze over your life, tell you what you have to do, and decide what should be important in your life. Society rewards this behavior and sets a substandard in my opinion.

This trickled down to how I threw myself into opportunities without much thought. This urge manifested itself in the form of fear of saying ‘no’.

It was a lesser evil to be busy and running around than think of what was important to me—

Or so I thought. Empowering myself to think differently helped a lot in practice.

I learned how manipulative people can be when they figure out the power they have over making decisions for you. It puts you in a vulnerable position because you feel like you do not have the power to decide what you truly want for yourself.

On most days, when the inspiration fuel ran out, I was unmotivated and struggled with hearing my voice.

I struggled with consistency to relish in the things I like. It made more sense when I deeply reflected on what went wrong. Fun fact! The word 'priority' was used in singular form for five hundred years since the 1400s. The 1900s introduced its plurality translating to having more than one priority. (From Essentialism by Greg McKeown)

This minute change watered down what is truly indispensable in our lives.

It equally showed that nothing mattered; I stand to confess as a painful fact—

A consequence of allowing other people to decide my priority in life.

My to-do lists grew longer but I would ultimately get nothing done.

My consistency in things I loved dwindled and I constantly felt defeated.

All I could think of was the importance of healing from my complex that society was always right. Regardless of information indigestion, I was never taught how to make a choice. I had to learn how to do this by tapping into more quiet time.

Taking time to listen to myself, think, and reflect does not come easy while addicted to a fast-food model of living. These are the moments I realized the difference between the zeal I have to pounce on opportunities that may not matter and making time for what matters to me.

Moral of the story?

Don't join the bandwagon of systematically jeopardizing yourself or your life.

Lose the idea of busying yourself with what people think or being careful with choices that matter to you.

Be purposeful and intentional when it comes to yourself.

Not making that choice for yourself is also choosing to be a passenger in your life.

Be the driver and be aware that this takes time and effort.

You will struggle.

You will fail.

All worth it because it's the journey that matters.

Nothing but cocoa love,

Sam 🌼