Ever have one of those mind blown moments as a kid? Something really profound happens or you hear something which causes you to stop and exclaim “Whoa!”

It happened to me while listening to a Rush song “Free Will” I was really attending to the lyrics and when Geddy got to this line, I had that mind blown moment:

“If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice”

I was probably all of 13 at the time and I think my mind did just stop; simply hanging on that very line.

“Wait, what? Not to choose is a choice just as a,b or c? Whoa!”

Sometimes the best response to a situation is to simply, not choose to attend to it. I tried it out; and sometimes, it was the right thing to do –  as time had a way of showing me that not everything must be handled and things have a way of sorting out on their own.  Loads of stress lifted on that life’s little lesson.

But it goes deeper than that, I found. As time went on and I was exercising my choice to not choose, I found that also how I regard a situation (my attitude) is a choice as well. Something truly shitty happens I have a choice to react poorly as a result or to choose to take it with grace or optimism- and as a result the impact on me will be different.

Remember that time when we all embraced the fad witty retort to “Have a nice day!” ?

“Don’t tell me what kind of day to have.”

Turns out if one chooses to be happy, it changes color on the whole day, week or even year regardless of the shit storm one may walk through. Sure it’s a challenge at times, and as in my prior blog entry, I mentioned you can choose to let your weakness show to keep it from building up and destroying you from the inside.

We do face challenges each and every day, some poor interaction with a person and we have the choice of reacting poorly, reacting positively or simply not reacting at all. It just takes a bit of thought.

Not choosing can have a more profound impact than choosing path a or b.