MY SINGLE CHOICE 

I was thinking today about the choices that we make every single day and how they affect our lives, and remembered a talk I did at Toastmasters a number of years ago. For those of you that don't know, Toastmasters helps people learn to do public speaking. I delivered a talk that was about Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr and myself. In all of their lives and mine, their lives were turned in a dramatic direction because of a single choice that they had made in a certain circumstance.

For Gandhi, it was when he was thrown from a train in South Africa, because of this event, he stayed for a number of years in South Africa and also a number of years in India to help fight racism and prejudice against Indian people and the control the British Empire had in India. For Martin Luther King Jr, it was standing up for Rosa Parks when she was arrested for not giving up her seat on a bus and moving to the back with the other black people. For me, it was honouring an agreement I had with a friend and going out on Christmas Eve, two and a half years ago and meeting my lady.

All of our lives, every day are filled with choices, what books and magazines we read, the food we eat, the music, conversations and radio we listen to, the television and internet we watch, who we talk to, learn from, interact with. All of these things have effects on our lives and where they are going. They may only be a small effect but compounded over a number of years, that negative friend will drag you down, that regular meal of fast food will give you health challenges, that trashy TV show will dull your senses.

A number of years ago, I started to become more conscious of these choices and how they impacted on my life and more specifically today how they tie in with The 7 Big Questions. I now am very conscious of how I think, who I talk to, what I read, watch and listen to. All of these things impact my life and I want to be in control of what influences me these days.

I remember years ago reading a story on Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and someone had asked Holmes why he knew nothing about a particular subject.  He retorted 'Why should I clutter my mind with subjects that will only take up space and for which I have no use.'  This is how we have to be, conscious of what we fill our minds and our lives with.

If you want to get a better life, become conscious of your choices. Really think about the effect your world around you has on you. At the end of the day, you are responsible for what influences you and your life. Choice wisely, because only you have the choice. What is your choice?

Wayne Brown is a facilitator for life change. Contact him at

his email address: the7bigquestions@yahoo.com 

or his website   www.the7bigquestions.com

or listen to his podcasts at www.the7bigquestions.podomatic.com