Life Isn't About Keeping Score

Life isn't about keeping score. It's not about how many people call you and it's not about who you've known, know now, or haven't known at all. It isn't about who you've kissed, what you drive, or how much money you make. It's not about your shoes or your hair or the color of your skin or where you live or go to church. In fact, it's not about status, money, clothes, or sexuality. Life isn't about if you have lots of friends, or if you are alone, and it's not about how accepted or unaccepted you are. Life just isn't about that. But life is about who you love and who you hurt. It's about how you feel about yourself. It's about trust, happiness, and compassion. Life is about avoiding jealousy, overcoming ignorance, and building confidence. It's about what you say and what you mean. It's about seeing people for who they are and not what they have. Most of all, it is about choosing to use your life to touch someone else's in a way that could never have been achieved otherwise. These choices are what life's about. ~unknown

What do your life choices say about you? I am not talking about choice in what car or SUV you buy, what street or neighborhood you decide to live. I am talking about choices between wrong and right, doing good or doing bad. Being there for someone that needs you, or never taking the time to see the hurt of another and simply focusing on your needs. Or take it one level deeper, and always being there for others, but never for yourself. Your choices define the balance that you keep in your life. It is about the friends that you keep, the ones that you lose and the ones that you walk away from.  It is how you chose to react when faced with ignorance and hatred. Do you play into it, and escalate a situation, do you hold you head high and walk away. Do you stand up for someone when everyone else has walked away, or do you turn your back on them too? Sometimes the choices we make in life, seem almost forced. Do we sacrifice ourselves for another or do we stand up for ourselves and do what is right for us?  At times in life, the answer is clear, right in front of our face, but we chose to ignore it. We allow others to make our choices for us, as we stand to the side, passive in our own lives. It is not what we wanted, but it was easier then disrupting the status quo, or we were worried about what people would think of us. Or we are so tired of explaining our actions to people who will never understand, that we give in when we should stand firm.  Somewhere along the way, we lose our voice. 

Life is about who you love and who you hurt. It is about owning up to mistakes you make and owning the consequences. It is settling into your own skin and accepting who you are, your strength and your limitations. It is valuing both friends and strangers and learning to trust your instincts. Life is about stretching beyond your comfort zone and confronting your fears head on. Life is a conscious decision, and too many people live an unconscious life.   It is what you say and it is what you mean. It is also, in what you DON'T say. Life in the words you keep to yourself is opportunity, missed. If you see something wrong, change it. If you see someone hurting, reach out to them. If a close friend makes life decisions, that go against everything you believe, allow them their choices, and  walk away from them. Never try and force your will on another, your way may be right for you, but not for them. Sometimes another's life lessons aren't clear to us, and they need to get there on their own. 

Life is about seeing people for who they really are, not what you want them to be. Trust your instincts. Use your voice and make your own decisions. Your life is defined by the choices you make, today, tomorrow and yesterday. If you make a wrong one, admit it and deal with it, then move on. But make them. 

It is only when you exercise your right to choose, that you exercise your right to change, and remember, there is no life as complete as a life lived by choice.