I coach high performance athletes for a living and in my line of duty I see the athletes and clients I work with challenged with making choices every day.
Our lives are a rich entanglement of experiences some intrinsic and invoked, and some extrinsic and imposed. When intrinsic, we have choice, choice of what, how, when, and why to invoke such experiences. When extrinsic or imposed we do not necessarily have a choice in the matter.
Choice is a consistent element of every waking moment of our lives, some choices are habitual or programmed, we don’t even realize we are making them, and some are clearly calculated or pondered. Some can seem more difficult than others.
Life really is a constantly moving line that is continuously splitting and splitting again, like the cracking of ice, yielding completely varying pathways and journey’s totally dependent on each of those choices.
But even more important than our choice is how we interpret and react to the result of our choice. Our reaction really is the key to our success, our health, and our wellbeing.
When we interpret, we always interpret based on a state of mind, something that occurs to us when we are in a positive state of mind does not resonate the same way as the exact same happening when we are in a negative state of mind.
One of the reason’s for the music in a movie is to set up our state of mind so that it may better react to a particular scene in the movie. Without the music, the moment when the bad guy raises a knife and is about to stab the girl in the shower might only be 1/10th as scary as if there had been leading musical nuances followed by shrieks of intense musical sound played just as the moment arrived!
So in our interpretation or reaction to the choices we make or those that are imposed upon us, do we remain free spirited observing what occurs, only to have it pass by our field of vision or our sphere of influence, or do we embrace and experience it and all that comes with that experience seeing that experience as positive no matter what the outcome.
Do we wear our rose coloured glasses, or do we interpret or react to the results of our choices from a negative perspective where the result is most often interpreted and defined as unfavourable.
Our state of mind defines how we interpret information and in the instance of our choice, may allow us to see the implications of our choices as constant opportunity for growth, or as unfortunate, difficult or uncontrollable happenings. When viewed from this negative perspective the outcomes, or the perception of the potential outcome then becomes stress inducing and this type of stress is not good for our health and wellbeing.
The results of our choices are always a matter of our interpretation or perspective that is constantly driven by our state of mind. The more free spirited our state of mind, the less apt we are to interpret the results of our choices as negative, and the more likely we are to see the silver lining. This interpretation of the results of our choices is a much less stressful way to live, so keep your rose coloured glasses on!
Originally published at medium.com