MILESTONE CHOICES

Introspection 

Two Roads Diverging

 The Road Not Taken,   By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

I think the reason this famous poem resonates with millions of people is because every choice we make in life shapes the path we walk and eventually where we finally end up.  Cornell University researchers have estimated (It’s beyond me how they did this or who can dispute it) that the average adult makes about 35,000 conscious decisions every waking day!  And decisions have consequences.  It’s been noted that if an executive makes optimum decisions at least 50% of the time, he’s doing a commendable job.

 It would be futile to even attempt to document all of these choices, but I believe it would be interesting to recall those milestone choices through some introspection such as:

·        Choosing the activities and the children you played with for hours on end.

·         Choosing the profession or college major you found interesting.

·         Choosing your major employers and all the work friends you met.

·         Choosing the adult activities you like to enjoy participating in and watching.

·         Choosing a life partner as a soulmate.

·         Choosing to raise a child.

·         Choosing to commit to an extended mortgage and buy a home together.

·         Choosing church families, organizations and lifelong friends along the way.

·         Choosing books to read, television to watch, politics to support, etc.

·         Choosing ideals to support and make the world a better place.

How we remember our choices shapes us today.  Frost remembers taking the road less traveled with a sigh.  When we chose a particular path, we don’t have any certainty that taking the alternative may have been the better choice.  Ultimately, all of the 35,000 choices we make daily, both mundane and monumental, shape our character based on how we respond.  The end game is to live life so that we can simply look back and smile.  

And that will make all the difference!