Little Choices

In life, we often focus and stress about the big decisions or choices we occasionally have to make. Which path to take when we come to a fork in the road? What we often fail to remember, or choose not to look back on, is that life is more of a long journey made up of much smaller choices, not just each day but throughout the day.

While we may often spend time worrying about whether to look for a job or career change, take that trip, choose the right school or training, get married, have kids, or decide which car to drive, the list of worries is endless.

Instead of stressing over these big monumental decisions that we feel can change the entire trajectory of our future, perhaps it’s the little everyday decisions we make that we should be focusing on, and just try to be and live in the present.

We often have to make choices in the moment that are one of two paths:

• Choose the pleasure now in exchange for pain or suffering later.
• Take the immediate pain and suffering for the pleasure afterwards.

Here are some common everyday life examples:

• Should I eat that donut in front of me (immediate pleasure) and suffer later (sugar crash, inflammation, upset stomach, feeling guilty after)?
• I don’t really want to work out today; it is hard and painful. But the reward and pleasure after are the feelings you have when you complete your workout and the health benefits.
• The last thing or at least next to last thing I want to do right now is make sure I have enough life insurance or am on track for retirement. I am not dying right now, so it can wait. So you avoid the pain and suffering of having to sit down and go over finances in exchange for the immediate pleasure of binge-watching your show on Netflix instead.

Instead of taking the short-term pain of financial planning for the pleasure and peace of mind you would feel afterwards, knowing you have a plan and are on track or even just starting to get on track.

• I know I should start each morning reading my Bible, but I am so stressed and overwhelmed with work and responsibilities that perhaps I should get an early start and knock out some of my to-do list and check my emails for the day? So you take what looks like the painless route and skip being in the Word for today and find by late afternoon you are grumpy and irritable and still have an enormous task list staring at you. Instead, what if you took what appears to be the more painful path and delayed starting work and life for 15 minutes and did business with the Lord and refreshed your soul before you tackled your to-do list?

We have an upcoming election in front of us. What if instead of the doom and gloom attitude that if the other one gets elected the world will end and your life will be ruined (the future you have no control over), what if you just took the candidates that are in front of you, swallowed your bias and hatred for a moment of suffering, and looked at the top two or three issues that are most important to you and your family in the immediate future and just voted for whichever one has a better policy or stance on those key issues? At least you can have some peace that you did your research, were not blinded by hatred but rather ruled by common sense and have peace (future pleasure) letting the chips fall where they may.

The last and most obvious one, when it comes to spending. Do you go for the instant pleasure and make that purchase then feel guilty later, or do you suffer now, forego the purchase today, and save for the future pleasure of something more meaningful and beneficial to you?

We cannot change the past, and we cannot control our future. What we can control is the present moment.

Maybe we should actually sweat the small stuff.