One Choice Can Change the Direction of Your Life

“Just Thinking"

I had a little extra time on my hands this week and was reflecting on some of the decisions that I made in my life and, weather good or bad, how they led to where I am now. The truth is that it is never just the one choice that we make, but the choice, plus the subsequential choices that pave the path of the road that we travel. 

As Yogi Berra said, when you come to a fork in the road, take it. People have interpreted this advice about making decisions as to not getting stuck in indecision. I reality Yogi used this phrase when giving directions to his home in Montclair, New Jersey. The road leading to his house literally split into two paths that both ended up at his driveway so no matter which fork you took, you’d arrive at the same place.

Our Lives are filled with daily moments that seem small or insignificant at the time, a decision, a conversation, a simple yes or no. Yet it is often these moments that shape the directions that our lives take, that we would never have imagined at the time. It seems like a decision that changes our lives should be something dramatic, a bold leap, a perfect plan, or a stroke of luck. But more often, these changes start quietly, with a single choice. The decision to take a chance, to forgive a friend, to try something new, or to walk away from what no longer serves you. Each of these moments creates a ripple, much like the butterfly effect, where one small action can lead to an entirely different outcome.

The butterfly effect, a decent Ashton Kutcher Sci-Fi movie for 2004, but a much more interesting scientific theory, that small causes can have large, unpredictable consequences.

Meteorologist Edward Lorenz coined the phrase in the 1960s. While studying weather patterns, Lorenz discovered that tiny changes in initial conditions could lead to vastly different outcomes in his weather simulations. He illustrated it with the metaphor: A butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil could set off a tornado in Texas.

I am often blown away when I speak to my now adult children, the things that I have done or said that were throw away lines or actions that had huge impact. The occasions that I had spent the most time preparing for or spent the most money investing in are forgotten or had very little impact. The same thing is also true when I look back on times spent with my own parents, a joke, a song or an action that was just them living their lives, left the biggest impact.

How did I get here, where am I going, I don’t know. The decisions that we make or don’t make daily pave the road that we travel. The things that we say and the things that we do all have impact on those arounds us, but it often the things that we do unintentionally that have the most impact.

The road is frighteningly long if all you see is the end. So, make reaching the end of the road your goal. Step forward every day with a clear vision of the end. Step after step, day after day moving forward. You'll reach the end and achieve your goal and realize that the journey was the point all along. CB Sept 2015

BTW, on this day in 1901, a 63-year-old schoolteacher named Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to successfully go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survive.

Have a great Weekend.

Let me know what you think.

​

Confused about the Real Estate market?

If You Don’t Know - Just Ask Chuck

@ChuckBarberini  #ChuckBarberiniRealEstate 

#JustAskChuck  @ChuckBarberiniRealEstate

https://dot.cards/chuckbarberini