THE TRUE POWER OF ONE DECISION

What makes a life? 

Is it the experiences encountered? 

The people acquainted with? 

The juxtaposition of dreams and aspirations as against reality? 

Or just a simple assessment of one’s own self? 

Well, it doesn’t matter which we choose; each has the potential to be the actual answer depending on personal perspective and objectives; however, one thing we can’t deny is that in all of this, none can be possible without a single decision.

So, that’s what I really think life is. A product of one decision. And sometimes this one decision seems to take the form of an onion—a bulb comprising of many other consequent decisions; but it all begins with that one and either spirals downwards or cascades uphill from there on.

With a careful look at each of our lives, it becomes easier to spot that none of us got where we are by mere mistake. For even mistakes are offshoots of one’s decisions. So, yes, we are a consequence of decisions—whether our personal decisions or others’ decisions on our behalf, of which we might have consented to or otherwise. But one way or the other, like a ball, we were kicked into our current positions. And we had a choice afterward to revert or accept it. Whichever we chose is the reason why we are where we are right now.

I like the phrase “We were kicked”. It explains the mechanics of life well enough, because that’s exactly how life works, like football. With each decision made, a kick or a throw is produced that determines where we end up next, and the resultant accumulation of such kicks or throws either wreck or make us. This is why it is important to ensure we are consciously and personally making decisions that positively alter our lives. 

Leave nothing to chance. Nothing happens from nothing. Life is borne from life as actions are borne from acts. So doing nothing won’t get you anywhere. Worse, it never works. For every time you assume you’re doing nothing, someone else is doing it for you. By omission or commission a piece of the puzzle of your life is always being moved. Hence, it’s simply better when you are the one doing the moving. It is better when all this motion is intentional and with a full picture in mind of where you want to go.

In other words, no one should be allowed to make the most important moves of your life. Take ownership of that. Where to make a home, which school to go, what career path to ply, who to marry, or who to be etc. These decisions define 95% of what your overall life becomes, and should never be handed over to any third party. The other 5% is determined by what you choose not to do. Therefore, it is pertinent that you understand what I’m trying to say. That you aggressively choose to be a principal player in this game of chess we call life. 

Call your own shots and hit the figurative timer as a remembrance of what you had in mind when that exact move was taken. Because if you don’t, you’d have no one else but yourself to blame.

In truth, there’s really no one else to blame for ruining your life, except you were born as a slave, lived a slave and died a slave. Other than that, as much as your odds might have been unfavorable and your experiences horrendous, there’s always a part in all of that where one right decision could have affected the overall outcome of your life. But sometimes it never happens because we are too afraid to make this one right decision, or just very much too self-sabotaged to even believe it could make a difference. 

But just so you know, it could have—made a difference, that is. 

There’s a reason why it is said that each individual would be judged on a personal level at the end of all of this we refer to as life even when we know that the direction of most individuals’ lives are largely dictated by (1) the generation before them, (2) societal innuendos and (3) the legal and value framework of their country of residence, in that order. Nevertheless, such an individual would still be judged as though it were all within his or her power to determine what was done or not. And this is so because it really is. In spite of all these other influences, the buck stops at our tables. We can choose when to end the constant push in the wrong direction and when to start traipsing in the right path, regardless of how slow, painful and reckless the journey might seem pro tem. But it’s the truth—we can.

There are things you can’t change about yourselves now because they are the results of your parents’ decisions, perhaps when you were too young to make one for yourself; but not anymore. Don’t make yourself a collateral of reckless living either from your end or someone else’s. Realize that you have the power to change your life no matter how far in the wrong direction you’ve gone. Realize that you can alter your present trajectory in a blitz. Realize that you can be a new person right this moment. All it truly takes is one decision. A decision to be different. A decision to be better. A decision to be more.

The attached video above was personally compiled and curated to inspire you. I hope it works. I hope you see enough through it to understand why now is the best time to take control of your own life. 

Personally, there are things I would have done differently with my life. There are decisions I wouldn’t have let others make on my behalf. But that’s all in the past. All I can do now is forge ahead to make better ones that can pull me back in the optimum direction I desire and my life deserves and demands. All I can do is try to make sure others coming along don’t make the same mistakes I did. That’s the very essence of this blog, isn’t it? Being a light to those just entering the dark tunnels of life. We’ve taken a few steps ahead of most, but those steps can help keep multitudes from falling where we did. 

And that’s what I intend to do with my life. 

That’s my one decision as it concerns you this day. 

So help me God!