Choices and Wannabes

Choices are good. No choices, even lack of choices, are not so good. Choices imply availability of options. No options mean you have no choices. No choices takes away one's freedom. Options give us breathing room to empower decisions. That's good. We want choices.

Interestingly, it is quite rare to actually have no choices. We may not like the choices we have, but there are choices, nevertheless. It must also be pointed out that the vast majority of our choices involve decisions that are relatively unimportant. Fill in the blanks. Think about the choices you make each day and ask yourself how important are most of them in the grand scheme of things. Do the choices you make significantly impact your day? Probably, most don't. If they do, then perhaps you are loaded down with too much responsibility. One can make only so many truly important choices everyday before overload results and burnout rears its ugly head. Agree?

The gist of this post is to briefly explore the issue of whether at the root of many of our choices is the desire, or possibly even the need, to be something other. People who want to be something other or to have something other or to be thought of as something other many times are known as wannabes. Wannabes are a contemporary version of yesterday's "keeping up with the Joneses." Wannabes are dissatisfied with the real and find perceived value in the other. Therefore, we define success as needing something, happiness in having something, power in knowing something, and the like. The bottom line is that too often we look to the other, the not yet, the out there, as our reason to formulate our choices. It is a type of admission that we are not content with what we have. Foolishly, we believe need more to be what we wannabe.

This is a prescription for disaster. Improving one's lot in life is admirable. Convinced that one must have something other in order to be valued is detrimental. To further the gist here, do a quick inventory of what is most important to you. Only you can do this. Then ask how your time and energy and resources are being utilized to accomplish this task. At the same time you will, undoubtedly and painfully, encounter how much time and energy and resources are going toward unimportant things. Sadly and teasingly, importance is fleeting. What is really, really, really important today is not so important tomorrow. Wisdom is understanding the bigger picture. Discipline is carrying out one's priorities. Joy is knowing you are living your life with respect for who you are and not who you may wannabe.

Choose to wannabe what's important and cast aside all imposters. It really is your choice.