Today I’m getting a repeat lesson in Choice. To be honest, I’ve been struggling. I know I’m not supposed to admit it (because clients want successful coaches), but yes, I have my days when I have to learn lessons over and over again. And today’s lesson is Choice.

Today I have to choose how I’m going to think, how I’m going to feel and what beliefs I am going to repeat inside my head. I have to choose how I will respond to what happens in my life today.

Today, a kid in Sudan rejoices at getting a whole egg for breakfast. Today, a lady in Calgary is angry because a dog pooped on her million-dollar lawn. Each response is a choice.

I have to choose, or it will be chosen for me. If I do not exercise my right to choose my thoughts, feelings and beliefs, then they will be chosen by my circumstances, by my old mental habits and by my social conditioning. To give up my right to choose is still a choice. I can either choose a positive response, and loving thoughts, or I can choose to let negative thoughts ruin my day (and my life).

This is easier said than done. Why do you think that most of us have not yet fully learned this lesson?

Because it’s hard. It’s hard to choose generosity when I feel broke. It’s hard to choose forgiveness when I feel victimized and self-righteous. It’s hard to choose clarity of purpose when the options are confusing. It’s hard to choose joy when I feel pain.

It’s not only hard right now – it’s a choice I have to make repeatedly, every moment of every day.

What choice are you making right now? It may be different than the choice you made a minute ago. Lots of us live with this myth that when you make a choice, then everything changes forever. I grew up in a religious environment where I learned that “accepting Christ” (a one-time choice) would change the rest of my life. Superstar success gurus like to push their “one simple decision” philosophies on the hungry masses – “It only takes five minutes and the effects last a lifetime!”

We want miracles done for us. And that’s okay. Miracles do happen – but only when we choose them right now. If I want the miracle of grace and peace, I must choose forgiveness right now. If I want the miracle of clarity, I must accept what I know is true right now.

Right now, I can choose gratitude, faith and compassion in the middle of my circumstances. Or, I can choose something else. I cannot live off the choice I made yesterday, or hope to make a better choice tomorrow. If I am waiting for my circumstances to change before I make a better choice, then that is a choice to be victimized by my circumstances.

You can choose your thoughts, feelings and beliefs right now. In fact, you already are choosing them.

If I’m sounding repetitive, that’s because the lesson has to be repeated so darned often. At least for me, anyway.

Right now, I’m choosing accountability.

And… okay, now.

And now.