Put the gun down

In a Nutshell

We are often making choices under a lot of pressure. We feel like someone would put a gun to our head. And there is a lot of people who are often holding this imaginary gun without even knowing it. They make the decision for us, they present us the options they created and our job is just to choose one of the options. But what if we made our own decisions, created our own options and simply chose from them instead of let us being pushed to make terrible choices?

The whole Coconut

If someone asked you: “Do you wanna live in Latvia or Lithuania?” you would probably answer “None, I wanna stay in here, this is my home.” And if he said: “you must choose”, you would still say that you can't because you don't know much about these countries or you've never even heard of them. But in a case he would put a gun to your head and in a case you would believe that he's crazy and that he's actually want to kill you, you would instantly say: “I wanna live in Lithuania!” and you would start packing. Because now your priorities have changed and you think that you must make the choice. But the decision was made for you.

More realistic question would be: “What do you wanna do in your life?” We all know this question, don't we? We've heard that since we were three. And we constantly feel the pressure and we think about it our whole life. But we never ask ourselves “Why should I know what I wanna do in my life? Do I really need to choose now?”. We're just trying to figure out what we want to do and it drives us crazy. Why? Because we have no idea what it takes to be a fireman or a pilot when we're young. Because we don't have enough information and we feel like we're running out of time to make the choice.

As many kids want to become firemen, because they see all the good things. But many of them gave up on that dream as they grew up. Some of them because they had found out that it's actually a hard job. But some of them because they were forced to choose something else. Only a few can stand the social pressure and become what they wanted as kids because they simply love it.

Many of us are forced to study, to get a degree, to find a “serious” job, to achieve something “more” in our lives. We are forbidden to do what we love and we're forced to choose something else, something we're not passionate about. We feel like there is just no time to think about it. We're forced to choose right here, right now so we can start making money. And sadly, we often choose wrong even though we're trying to choose the best. And it's not working. So, we need to slow down a little bit to give ourselves a chance to think about it. We must not be afraid of losing time or money, we must be afraid of making an uninformed decision and of losing an opportunity to do something we love.

People make wrong decisions every day, and that's ok. We need to be prepared to make mistakes. The majority of what we learn comes from our own mistakes. If we're not courage enough to make a wrong decision, we will never learn how to do it right. But better those mistakes come from an informed decisions so we can do the right thing later.

So, if someone forces you to choose right away, whether it's your parent, your friend, your teacher or employer, tell them to lower their weapon so you can think for a moment, find more information, decide properly, create your own options and choose for yourself. And if you find yourself that you are the one who's forcing someone to choose, please, just put the gun down.

#choices #decisions #forced #gun #2015