Rocking Your Choices

Let’s face it, we all make poor choices sometimes. But we also all make really good choices, too. Then there are all of those choices in between that are really “meh.” As you look at your choices, having gone through treatment for mental health or substance use issues, you may want to evaluate where your choices lie on that scale. Do you have a lot of choices you could regret? Or are you rocking your choices?

Quantity vs. Quality

When it comes to making choices, you might make a lot of really poor decisions that have less impact on the grand scheme of life. For example, you may make the decision to wear a hideous outfit, put pickles on your pancakes, paint your shoes to look like possums, or do the Macarena in the middle of class. Those are some bad decisions, but the impact on your life is relatively limited. They are a number of bad decisions, but you can still have most of your integrity.
The important decisions, or quality decisions, are where it really matters. Like not getting face tattoos, for example. Choosing to not relapse with substance use, especially after all of your hard work in recovery. Making the choice to not have unprotected sex, a decision that could impact not only you and your partner but potentially another life as well.
When it comes to making decisions, if you are going to make poor choices, then fine, shave your hair to look like a UFO. The pictures will last forever, but the hair will grow back. The decisions that matter long-term and impact your life and potentially the lives of others are where you want to really rock your choices.

Learning Experiences

The most important part about making choices, good or poor, is what you learn from them. Like the shame from the pictures of your poor fashion choices may haunt you, but learning to dress better shows that you learned from those choices and you have evolved. The face tattoos, on the other hand, if you had chosen to get them, would only teach you remorse and possibly the expense of having them removed.
Even if you have made poor choices, learning from them can be a very valuable lesson. Painful, maybe, but valuable. However, you can also learn from making good choices. Like when you choose to not relapse with substance use, you can stop and truly appreciate all of the many benefits of making such a good decision. You know the potential consequences of making the poor decision there because you have come from that place. Now you are learning how it feels to make a good decision regarding your mental health. And you are rocking it.

Risk Factors

Making decisions is also based on various information, such as risk factors. Whether or not you rock your choices may be due to the fact that you did or did not consider those risk factors. For example, if you choose to eat fast food every day, you should know the health and economic risks that you are taking. As for health, there is obesity, diabetes, and other related complications that come along with poor dietary choices. Economically, it can become very expensive to eat like that and you may wish that you had used your available money in different ways, or even saved it for your future. All of the risk factors in that decision point to choosing healthier, less expensive foods as being the better decision.

Being Aware of Your Choices

Sometimes you make choices that you don’t even think about. Like whether or not to smile at or talk to people. You might choose to wear clothes without checking the weather that day. Or you may choose to play video games without finishing our homework or chores. Maybe you didn’t even put any thought into those decisions, but every choice you make has consequences, whether those consequences are positive or negative. Being aware of them will help us to choose not only the actual decision but also your potential consequences for your actions.

The Power to Choose

We all have the power to make choices in our life. Whether the choice is to eat breakfast or not, or even what to eat for breakfast, you and I have that power. Your power to choose can be used for your benefit or it can work against you, it is really up to you. Even if you sometimes learn more from poor choices, it is painful and can set you back or make a long-term impact on your life. When you use your power to choose and make good decisions, it is a very real and tangible power that impacts your life every day.
Rocking your choices means prioritizing the big decisions and really focusing on making the right decisions when it counts. Rocking your choices means learning from your choices, and really evaluating the risks involved before you choose. As you become more aware of your choices, you will start to notice the power of making good decisions. As you learn to make more good decisions, you truly rock your choices. Big or small, the power you have to choose should not be taken lightly. With that power, you are rocking your choices.

Making choices can be difficult. Call Embark Behavioral Health at 1-855-809-0409 if you need support with making decisions. You can give yourself the power to rock your decisions.