Simple Choices

Simple Choices

Some days feel simple like life adds up to a choice. Choice after choice.

Choose to be happy.

Choose to engage.

Choose to believe the best.

Choose to trust.

Choose to move even when you'd rather vanish in a puff of smoke and enter a new story anonymously.  Poof! In this fantasy I think about to entering the story in a hero kind of way.

But running to a new story is just the evidence of fear taking over the hypothalamus part of my brain.  It's giving up on one narrative half way through and running to the next.  Fight or flight.  And that flight doesn't feel very hero-like.  In the moment it feels like it's saving me. And it might be on some days.  On other days it might be holding me back.

I have to remind myself to choose to trust and let others fully know me.  This seems like such a fundamental lesson to learn.  I can't help but wonder- how many of us are in the same place. The place where trust and loving others well is a choice that doesn't come so naturally. It comes with squeaky wheels, buttons missing, and duck tape holding it together.  I think that's what vulnerability looks like: a duck tape patch work project.

To trust others is to give up having to know it all, to let go of maintaining a posture of control, and to allow yourself to fully connect with another human.  Even though there's scary in that, there's also beauty in it.  I don't think there's a 12-step process or any kind of great leadership lessons on how to do this.  It's just a choice.  Choose to step towards connection.

Enjoy your simple day of choices that draw you closer to the one you're with--whoever is on your agenda for the day.