As humans we complain constantly about the big and the small things that happen in our lives. We complain unnecessarily but we are responsible for the choices that we make. We stay in situations because we CHOOSE to. We refuse to explore the world because we CHOOSE to. We shy away from opportunities because we CHOOSE to. We go to school and we do not learn because we CHOOSE to. Not because the teacher didn’t teach but because we choose to limit ourselves to learning from one source. We stay with people who drain the life out of us because we CHOOSE to and because we doubt our abilities to do better. We are afraid to launch our inner rockets and shake the world. Because we choose to limit our potential.

Nothing in life is ever easy and if it appears to be easy at first then know that some difficulty lurks around the first corner.

For every choice we make… there is a consequence. And we have to choose to live with that consequence.

I remember when I was teaching and at the start of the school term I would have that first talk with my students. I would tell them that my method of discipline was different from all of the other teachers. I told them that I didn’t punish students for not doing assignments because they didn’t have to do their assignments simply because I wanted it.

I remembered telling them that for every choice there is a consequence. They could choose to do their work and the consequence would be that they get a good grade and this would look good on their six week report cards. It would also determine their future. LOr they could choose not to do it and the consequence would be that they would get a zero which would put them at the bottom of the class.

I reminded them that they can make either choice but I would hope that they would be able to accept the consequence of succeeding or failing. Being successful meant they would accomplish their future goals in a shorter time. But failing means that they would take a longer time to achieve those goals.

I also reminded them their choices would determine their path after five years. Of course there were different groups who chose to test my theory. I would quickly give a graded piece and find that majority of the group didn’t hand in the assignment. What did I do? I took my mark book out and started recording zeroes. They complained to every and any one and my response was always… I gave you a choice and I explained that there were consequences to those choices. Tphe shock soon wore off when they realized that their choices had indeed produced unwanted consequences. Some were brave enough to try a second time and the consequence was the same. Within the first six weeks… those kids hated my methods but they respected the fact that there are harsh consequences to unnecessary choices. Today I am still around to see so many of these kids and hear their stories of how that simple drastic action had helped them to be where they are.

As adults we need to remember that life is the same. We make simple and silly choices and regret the harsh consequences and then we complain that life is unfair.

We are often given lemons and we are comfortable with those lemons and so we make lemonade. But we didn’t want lemonade… we wanted champagne. And yet we settle for lemonade because we are afraid to try something different. There is nothing wrong with wanting more. There is nothing wrong with dreaming of better. What is wrong is that we often settle because we are afraid of the unknown. We are afraid to explore. We are comfortable with settling for less.

And when we choose to settle… we complain that this isn’t enough. But we chose to settle.

When we work hard to achieve more… we complain that the hard work is too much… but we chose to work hard. When we do not work hard, we complain that we do not have enough.

We want more from school, work, families, friends, and even ourselves but we make choices that do not allow us to assess our situations and channel our paths towards the results that we need. And when we do not get to that vision we complain. We make excuses. We blame others. We never assess our results based on the choices that we made. We never assess our results based on what more we could have done. Instead we justify our failures by harping on the problems that stood in our way.

There is always a reason to complain. But our complains will stay with us if we allow them to. Because we complain and not assess. We find excuses and we play the blame game. But we never stop to assess the reasons we did not achieve our goals.

When we complain we become self – absorbed or self-focused. We blame others. But when we voice our concerns we go beyond self and we assess the broader scope of our setbacks. We look at the impact of our choices on our overall plans. When we voice our concerns we are in control of our thoughts. We look towards a new or a future plan.