Realizing The Power of Choice Can Improve Your Life

Changing how we think can sometimes come from the simplest things, but we do not always realize their power yet. One of these simple concepts is the power of choice — how we decide on certain situations and circumstances when we’re presented with more than just one possibility. As a dad, you always want to make the best choices, but many of us rarely understand just how impactful our decisions can be. Dad University dives into the power of choice and its three areas to help you gain better insight. Read on! 

Choosing Your Emotion

Our emotions may seem out of our control. These are instincts — the first things we feel during distressing moments. When someone yells at us, we feel the urge to raise our voices, too. However, what would happen if we decide to ignore the initial rush of emotion and decide what we want to feel instead? What if we decide to be happy and calm when someone is acting upset or hostile?

Oftentimes, we blame our outbursts of emotion on other people. Your children made a mess, so they made you angry. Your boss assigned an unfair amount of work, so you’re mad at them. However, you can step back and really examine what you’re feeling. Yes, these people may have triggered an upsetting emotion, but you’re still under control of how you feel it. You can choose to let the bad mood take over you, or you could choose to be happy and calm.

When you actively choose to feel more positive emotions, a profound realization happens. No matter what people say, no matter what somebody does, you can have better control of your emotions and how you react to the situation. You feel calmer and more aware of how things are unfolding, allowing you to react with rationality and logic. 

In the past, you may have yelled back at your wife if she yelled at you. You may have gotten angry and raised your voice to your child after they made a mistake. Now, with the power of choosing your emotions, you can step back and assess the situation. You can ask yourself if there is any benefit to you being upset or angry, and then find ways to better deal with the situation. Not only will this awareness bring much emotional growth, but it will also foster healthier relationships with your loved ones.

Choosing the Meaning of Things

The next area we want to focus on is pretty important — how we choose the meaning of things, situations, and words. Let’s create an example; your wife forgot to wash the dishes the other night. For some people, they’d interpret this as laziness and unwillingness to do work. Thus, they get angry and think their wife is idle. Others would simply not even care or see it as a big deal, knowing that the wife (or they) can do the washing in the morning instead.

The above scenario is an example of how influential the meanings we assign can become. In one situation, different people can have different meanings. This doesn’t mean that one person is right and the rest are wrong. It’s simply a matter of experience, history, and knowledge. These are the lenses that we look through, and they are unfortunately filled with our innate biases that allow us to assign meaning.

Your history can influence how you interpret the world around you, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. You can step back and assign another type of meaning to things. Your wife forgot the dishes — that may not mean she’s lazy or inconsiderate. She could just be overworked and need help with some of the chores. Don’t immediately jump to the worst conclusions when something upsets you. You must actively interpret situations through a lens that encourages love, understanding, and goodness.

Choosing Your Destiny

The last area we want to discuss is the one that can have the most long-lasting effect on your life — choosing your destiny. You may already know that you have the power to choose the kind of person you want to be: an involved or an absent father? A career man or a family man? A person who chooses to be happy or a person who gets swept up by every emotion he feels?

It’s easy to choose the person you want to be; we want to be the best versions of ourselves and reach our full potential. However, the “doing” is where it gets hard. We must take responsibility for our destiny and actively shape our lives to achieve this goal. It takes discipline, consistency, and a conscious effort to choose the right things.

People also have a tendency to blame the world and everyone else for their failure to achieve their destiny. We may sometimes think that other people are responsible for our pain, but we also have to understand that everyone has different circumstances. People around you come from various backgrounds, cultures, and levels of privilege. At the end of the day, choosing our destiny is all about working with what we have and not blaming the rest of the world for our hardships. Finding fault is not productive. Instead, we must actively choose to shape our destiny with what life has given us.

Wrapping Up: Understanding the Power of Choice

Our choices define us. We have the power to choose our emotions, the meanings we assign to things, and ultimately, our destiny. You must understand how you react and see things, how you interpret situations, and actively choose how to deal with them. Having this knowledge opens up all kinds of possibilities and helps make you a better dad, husband, and person.

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