You had made different decisions?

You had selected a different career?

You had married someone different?

You had different parents?

You had lived somewhere else?

You had been born later or sooner?

There are hundreds of life questions that you could spend your time contemplating but the simple truth is that your life is what it is and it is an evolving, dynamic and mysterious process. If you had selected a different career maybe you would have ended up with someone else, living in another state and with a net worth of more or less.

If you had made better or different decisions you might be better or worse off. Who knows? These unknown consequences of your many life decisions and their ripple effect has had millions of possibilities and potential outcomes. The ones you have are the results of the decisions or choices you made. Think for a minute how just one decision could change your entire destiny. Where you went to college. Whether you went to college. What career you selected. Take your present circumstances and ask yourself if I had done ________ differently what would my life be like today?

You have a choice - wonder, question, contemplate and maybe even spend time regretting some of your decisions or you can just live the life you have to the best of your ability.

Are goals important? Yes. Are plans important? Yes. Is education important? Yes. Are your values important? Yes? But in the end the rest of your life can change in a heartbeat. I call these God's Smiles. He hands you an uncertain situation, you make a decision and then both of you watch to see what you do with it, how you handle it or what you learn from it.

Oswald Chambers said, "The only thing that is certain in life is its uncertainty." Dan Millman said, "Embrace the unexpected and release the expected." My addition to both of these is, "If you keep on focusing on how you would have liked your life to be different you may miss out on what your life could be."

Often in times of despair, discouragement, failure or problems I have asked myself, "Would I be here if I had made a better or different decision in the past?" The point is, that here is where I am supposed to be. I believe that because it is where I am. If I could go back and re-make any previous decisions regardless of whether they turned out good or badly would I be here doing what I am doing now and writing this article? Who knows. Maybe I would be even a better writer. Maybe I would have ended up a brick layer. (Nothing wrong with being a brick layer.) These possibilities are endless. The secret to happiness is acceptance. Not blind acceptance that - whatever will be will be. If that is true why bother to ever make any decisions or choices at all. But, acceptance that my life is what it is for a reason. I can hear some of you now. Does that mean that a murderer is what he is and that's it? I don't know your destiny. I don't know your life's purpose in the grand scheme of things. What I do know is I have the freedom to make choices. If they turn out good in the short term that doesn't guarantee that they will end up good choices. By the same token, if I make a bad choice now for the short term that in the long term it could end up being a good choice.

Oftentimes I feel like God is teasing me. He presents me with an opportunity. I take appropriate action and then it goes bad or doesn't work out. It makes me wonder was this another of God's Smiles or just life? I think it is just the process of learning to live life to the best of your ability regardless of the opportunities or problems that we have or their outcomes.

So, I'll leave you with a simple question. What constitutes a bad or good choice or decision?