When you get to a fork in the road

A wise man once said "when you get to a fork in the road - take it"

One of the challenges of being human is - even if we choose to see we have choices - knowing which ones to take.  An even bigger challenge for most people seems to be making any active choice at all.  Hesitation is a chronic condition that seems to affect many people that I meet.  As Richard Bandler said "He who hesitates waits and waits and waits..." But meanwhile life shoots by and so does opportunity.

Now of course no choice - and no action - is still a choice. But I don't understand why people allow their personal futures to be completely a matter of chance - a shake of nature's dice.

A young client of mine explained that when her children leave home she would then take steps to get her career back on track - but her children were only 9 years old at this point - she could imagine herself doing things ten years or so into the future. But had nothing in mind for tomorrow or the next day. 

She could completely rationalise her actions and saw them as a kind of noble sacrifice for the greater good of her family.   No one had asked her to do this.  She had adopted this role in the belief that by acting this way she was doing everything she could for her children. 

I didn't try to change her mind - but I did ask her what kind of people she wanted her children to become.  Explaining that she would like her children to be happy, wealthy, healthy and successful we discussed how she would like them to become independent thinkers and how she would love them to be a positive force in the world.  I asked her if they would learn these things from her.

When you get to a fork in the road - take it. If you start out by taking the wrong way and meet someone along the way you have been looking for you can still end up happy about your mistake.  A life standing at the crossroads is not your purpose.   Don't let mistakes discourage you.