Every choice sends your life somewhere—even the choices you avoid making.
The question is not whether you are choosing.
The question is: Who is doing the choosing?
We make hundreds of choices every day without keeping count. Together, those choices define much of the life we experience.
A day, situation, relationship, or responsibility often goes in the direction we have commanded—through either an act of commission or an act of omission.
For this short time we call “life,” we participate in shaping situations and outcomes. That includes the good results and, yes, the not-so-good ones.
Each person creates a personal reality containing both loss and reward.
LESS IS MORE
Trial and error can have its way with us relentlessly. Fortunately, we have been given something that can make the journey more rewarding and less like one long learning curve.
I am speaking of common sense—and our ability to use reason, logic, and intuition.
Sometimes less effort brings more gain.
Sometimes we need to stop pushing, listen carefully, and allow the obvious answer to arrive.
SINKING IN THINKING
Thinking is useful.
Thinking too much can turn a simple choice into a complicated production.
The deeper we sink into the think, the more likely we are to end up with a fool for a client—and guess who hired him?
If every answer could be found by thinking harder, someone before us would have solved life completely and left us a simple instruction manual.
No such luck.
E-Z on the thinking.
THE GUT
Haven’t you heard it said that the first answer quietly visiting you may be the one worth considering?
We commonly call this intuition or “the gut.”
It often moves us toward what was intended before excessive thinking talks us out of it. When we apply too much will, we can disturb the delicate balance of the matter at hand.
Seek flow—and go.
BUSY-BODY
The body makes millions of decisions each day without consulting us.
It operates at the speed of necessity, making corrections and adding or removing what is required to function at its best.
The body wants to live too.
It communicates through prompts, sensations, desires, discomfort, and—when we refuse to listen—demands.
Much of what the body requires is revealed in the present moment. In everyday language, we call this self-preservation.
Go, body, go.
PAUSE FOR CAUSE
People who remain stuck or repeatedly make the same choice often blame and deny until life brings them to their senses.
Eventually, we must accept responsibility for the choices we made—and the choices we passed on.
The error may not be found in the situation itself. It may be hiding within a belief.
Stop and have a look.
Some beliefs need to be kept. Some need to be modified. Others need to be shown the door.
WATCH THE BLAME GAME
Beliefs are invisible, but they are powerful.
They drive the life bus. They may carry us toward growth and prosperity, or steer us into loss and limitation when they are never questioned.
The temptation is to blame another person’s beliefs and create a story about why their way interferes with ours.
Blame?
Stop this.
WHO’S IN CHARGE?
We each captain our own ship.
The helm responds to the person holding it. If you believe someone else is steering every part of your life, that belief deserves examination.
Beliefs are meant to be tested, adjusted, and used wisely.
It is done unto you as you believe, so spend some quality time with this question:
What do you believe—and why?
SIMPLE IS AS SIMPLE DOES
Those who practice simplicity often discover that fewer unnecessary choices can produce a freer life.
Life already knows how to perform many of its functions without our interference. Much of what we are seeking exists within us and comes forward naturally when we stop blocking the process.
This is part of becoming carefree.
BECOME CARE-FREE
True freedom may be freedom from compulsive choosing.
That realization can take a lifetime to reveal itself and even longer to be accepted by the sojourner.
Its mystery opens more easily to those who retain a childlike state: lighthearted, receptive, and willing to trust.
Willfulness and pride can block innocent guidance.
MAY I HAVE A MOMENT?
One of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves—and others—is greater awareness.
Awareness increases our receptivity to what is happening around us.
The present moment is where choices begin, beliefs are examined, and new directions become possible.
Still, the present remains a mystery unto itself.
PROOF OF FOREVER
The present offers a taste of eternity: a continuing process sustained by a power greater than ourselves.
In this realm, we are observers and receivers. This may be closer to our true state of being than all the controlling, forcing, and worrying we mistake for living.
It allows room for a Father in Heaven to care for His own.
SOLVE THIS RIDDLE
“If you do nothing right, you will do nothing wrong.”
Hidden within this playful statement is a serious invitation.
There is a right way that eventually verifies itself—not always through effort, but through awareness, humility, and alignment.
Seek out the mystery.
It may reward you accordingly.
FINAL THOUGHT
You are already choosing, even when you choose to do nothing.
Slow down long enough to notice what is directing those choices: fear, habit, pride, common sense, intuition—or faith.
PEARLS INSIGHT
The best choice is not always the loudest, fastest, or most complicated one.
Sometimes the right choice arrives quietly and waits for you to stop arguing with it.
PEARLS FROM THE BOOKS
In “Epilogue of Ebenezer Scrooge: A Second Chance,” Scrooge discovers that transformation begins when a person stops surrendering to an old identity and chooses a different way forward.
A second chance becomes meaningful only when it is followed by a different choice.
PEARLS CONNECTION
Every choice creates a connection between what you believe today and what you experience tomorrow.
Examine the belief, and you may change the choice.
Change the choice, and you may change the journey.
RICHIE SPEAKS
You are the captain—but even a captain needs to look up from the wheel now and then.
If you keep steering in circles, don’t blame the ocean.
FINAL SAY
Choose with awareness.
Trust what is simple.
And remember: the direction of your life may depend upon the next quiet choice you make.
— Richie
Pearls for the Soul
when you feed the soul, you feed everything.
https://pearlsforthesoul.com
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