The Decisions You Never Had to Make

Core Article: The Decisions You Never Had to Make

Paragraph I’m Pondering: “We have the opportunity to choose whether…”

Powerful Affirmations to Inspire: “Every action I take aligns…”

Book Review: Letting Go: The Path of Surrender by David Hawkins

Cool Stuff: DoorDash Team Rescues 250m Pounds of Food

AI Info & Resources: AI can free you from a mental workout, yet…

The Decisions You Never Had to Make

Have you ever thought about the big life decisions you never had to make—because life made them for you?

Like where to live. What career or work will you do? Who will you love? When to stay or end a relationship? Caring for a family member. Or adopting an animal.

What if the turning points in your life that shaped you most weren’t the choices you had to make? They were the ones you never had to choose at all?

For me, it was that I never had to decide whether to…

1. Stay in the corporate world for 40 years.

That decision got ripped away when I was laid off. Not once, but four times in nine years. Each time, the rug got pulled from under me, whether I was ready or not.

2. Keep hiding who I was.

My body and soul made that impossible. The pretending stopped working. The truth needed to come out figuratively and literally.

3. When the corporate world left me, I had no idea what to do next.

The next day, I got a call from my old mentor, who heard about me being laid off, and asked me to come work for him to start his coaching business, and he’d help me start my marketing business. That was 19 years ago, and I’ve been loving every minute of being an entrepreneur.

4. Saying goodbye to my 11-year-old pup this past July.

It wasn’t a decision I wanted to make, yet I knew she was suffering. And that goodbye cracked me open.

These weren’t clean or tidy moments. They were messy and terrifying. And let me be totally honest with you, I didn’t walk into any of them gracefully. Some days, I felt dragged into them, kicking and screaming.

Looking back, those moments shaped me more than any strategy or carefully thought-out plan. They were the moments where I stopped gripping so hard. And I finally began to see myself more clearly.

Here’s the truth, no one really talks about: You don’t always get to choose the timing, the circumstances, or the “perfect” next step.

Sometimes, life closes the door for you. One of my favorite reframes when something happens that I wasn’t expecting or just lays me flat out…

After I work through all the feelings, I say: “I am grateful that this happened FOR me.” I choose to look for the lesson. How can I be grateful for the frustrations and things that drive me nuts? When I do that, something shifts in me. And will shift in you too.

And what happens next? Well, that part is where you and I get to decide how to respond.

Do you..

Grip tighter to what’s no longer working, or let myself be curious about what’s waiting on the other side?
White-knuckle this alone, or reach out for support?
Keep waiting for certainty, or step into the unknown anyway?

What I found doing this exercise is that oftentimes in life, the most important decisions are the ones you never have to make.

And it’s all about what you choose to do after the ground shifts under you; that’s where your power lives.

You got this – hands always at your back. 🙂

Paragraph I’m Pondering

“We have the opportunity to choose whether we want to hang on or let go of emotional upsets. We can look at the cost of hanging on to them. Do we want to pay the price? Are we willing to accept the feelings? We can look at the benefits of letting go of them. The choice we make will determine our future. What kind of a future do we want? Will we choose to be healed, or will we become one of the walking wounded?”

― David R. Hawkins, Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender

Powerful Affirmations to Inspire

“Every action I take aligns with my soul’s purpose, crafting a meaningful legacy that uplifts humanity.”
“I confidently step into my role as a transformational leader, inspiring others to manifest their highest potential.”
“I lovingly observe my thoughts without judgment, cultivating inner peace and self-compassion.”

Book Review

Letting GO: The Pathway of Surrender by David R. Hawkins

Cool Stuff

Sometimes I’m not so sure about these short clickbait titles. Yet, this was kind of interesting – Spending 5 minutes a day doing this…
Here’s an old head scratcher – what is Pig Latin and why in the world did we speak it when we were in school? Well, you know what to do, curious-minded person.
DoorDash teams up to rescue 250 million pounds of food from becoming waste.

AI Info and Resources

Anthropic just announced it’s launching a Claude AI that will live inside Chrome.
Rolling Stone was the first company to sue Google over its AI overviews. Hmmm
AI can free you from a mental workout, yet is that a good thing?

Weekly Photos

This past week, I headed up to Boise, ID, to visit my little sister and help out with her two boys. We got some hiking in with the dogs, some baseball games with the boys. And celebrated a birthday too. I feel incredibly grateful to be able to keep in touch and visit family who live close by. And the week before that, I visited my Mom. So glad to be back home for a while now after being away for so many days at the beginning of September.

My little sister Meghan snapped this one of me and my 8-year-old nephew, Cooper, after he won his baseball game.
Meghan and I are hiking in the Boise State Park.
Some pretty amazing views abounded on our trail.
We saw this cow on the side of the road as we were heading home. Not sure I’ve ever seen a cow so close the road before. Hmmm….
This is their 2-year-old Bernese Mountain dog, Beaux. He’s a big dog, over 100 lbs, a mush though without the slobber, and so protective. His paws are huge!
There’s Jackson, my 11-year-old nephew, at his school’s fall festival.
Blast from the past. I LOVED taking these two pups hiking in the woods. And they loved their car rides too. I still can’t believe they’re both gone. I miss you, Lily and Emma!

P.S.

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