My kids have a book called You
Choose[1].
The book gives the reader a choice of where they want to go, who their friends
and family are, where they want to live and what they want to put in their
homes, what food they want to eat, what they want to work as and what they want
to do in their spare time, what pets they want and where they want to sleep.
The book illustrates to me, the differences between my boys; Sammy chooses to
live in the toadstool every time whilst Oliver’ choices vary between the castle,
mansion (the house with lots of rooms) and tree house. Sammy always wants to
eat Spaghetti Bolognaise whereas Oliver goes for the cake, jelly and ice-cream.
Sammy wants a pet unicorn and Oliver in recent weeks has graduated from the
dragon to a more practical (and perhaps more realistic) hamster.
In some ways I love and hate the
book. I hate the fact that we have to read it practically every day, that Sammy
is stubborn about his choices and that Oliver no longer wants a princess as his
friend because in his words; “I’m a boy and boys don’t like princesses”.
However, what I love about the book far outweighs what I hate. I love the fact
that the book has become aspirational to the boys. Both boys want to be a
pilot, want to ride in a space rocket and want to score a goal at the world
cup. The book allows them to be whatever they want to be and do whatever they
want to do. There are no limits.
What would it be like to live a
life with no limits? To live in a world where all five year olds were able to
travel into space, where all seven year olds could go to Cinderella’s ball,
where no teenager suffered from acne or social awkwardness, a world where all
A-level students could go to university without worrying about lifelong debt,
to be certain of a job upon graduation, to be certain of finding a life
partner, of having children easily and bringing them up safely and securely.
If we lived in a world with no
limits, would we be any happier? Probably not. Knowing my limits and trying to
conquer them makes me happy. I am in control of my own destiny. I know I won’t
be living in a toadstool but I am going to do what I can to make myself happy
and my life fulfilling.
There are two things that I think
is true of everyone. No one is born lucky or unlucky and everyone has a mission
in their lives to fulfil. Of course
there are people who have terrible things happen to them and we empathise with
them and say they’re unlucky. When my mother died people said how unlucky I
was. My attitude was that I was lucky enough to know it was coming and say everything
I wanted to say. Not everyone has that opportunity.
Choices, destiny and luck; is
there a difference? I believe so. I don’t think luck really exists. We make our own
luck, it’s not lucky to be offered a great job, you worked hard for it, it’s
not lucky to go on holiday and have great weather, it’s the weather patterns.
Our destiny is something that is predetermined, the realisation that our world
is greater than just the here and now, it’s the contribution we make to our family,
our community and our society. Choices. That we have full ownership of. When we
face barriers, it’s our choice about whether to dismantle them or find another route.
When we are unhappy, we can choose to bring about a change to that situation
which brings about a return to our happiness. When we are told no, we must
choose to find out why and use that to move forward. Everyday, we make choices,
big ones, small ones, ones which will have no impact on others, ones which will
change everything.
Sometimes I wish I was five years
old again when the choices amounted to whether to live in a castle or a tree
house, whether to have cheese or quorn sandwiches in my packed lunch or what
fruit to choose at snack time. Life was definitely simpler then. But the fact
is today, even as I enter my mid thirties, I still believe that we have the
power to make positive choices about the way we live and learn from the
consequences of making the wrong choices. We are in control. I think the
biggest weakness and our biggest challenge is not making a choice at all and staying
on the fence because we are fearful of the consequence of that choice. No one
is perfect, everyone makes mistakes and there is nothing weak about making
choices. The weakness lies in those who don’t make any choices or those who
would rather shout at the world for being unfair, than be proactive about
making a choice.
2012 is a year in Britain for
being part of history; The Olympics and the Jubilee have made us want to be a part
of history. I wonder this year how many of us will be conscious about the
choices we make and about writing or rewriting our own history?
Very thought-provoking Debbie, and I couldn't agree more about the importance of challenging our limits and making difficult choices rather than no choices. Might use your wisdom as my starting point for the next post in my new blog :-)
ReplyDeletehttp://throughacceptinglimits.wordpress.com/
PS - the title of my blog came from my favourite musical, Wicked. Some of the lyrics of "Defying Gravity" are:
ReplyDeleteI'm through accepting limits
Cos someone says they're so.
Some things I cannot change
But 'til I try I'll never know.
Thought it was quite pertinent to your post!
Lizi xx