Every moment you make choices. People say that you made a wrong or a right choice. Although right and wrong are not absolute and only later in time you get to know if something worked or it didn’t.

I fondly remember – Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths – where they had this concept which was really mind bending. Every time anyone on Earth makes a choice, it develops another parallel Earth where that person made the alternate choice!!. Sadly, we stay on the same Earth and cannot look at what eventually happened on the other Earth, to analyze which choice was better.

We make choices and we have to live with the outcomes. But choices on their own are to be blamed, it is really your outlook. From my experience, your immediate circle of people greatly influence that outlook. You make an investment blunder, your friend will say ” I told you not to go with that, see what happened!”. You choose a job, there will be people saying “I told you” depending on how you describe your job to them.

Sometimes people may look back and say that they made a wrong choice, but what they fail to look at is that, may be in that particular situation they really had limited options or maybe their intellect wasn’t as sharp as it is today.

Story: If only

I used to be good in academics once and I had always heard that if you are good academically your future is bright. This made me overconfident and at crucial time in my academic career I faltered. Everybody wanted to get into country’s premier institutions, these institutions somewhat promise a good and stable career. I failed to get in. Instead I took admission into an institution where I spent 1.5 years thinking, “If only I had worked harder, I wouldn’t have been here”. But who asked me to get an admission here? I made a choice.

After under graduation, I joined a relatively smaller company. It is expected that one should joined a big Multi-National at this stage. Again the “if only” moment, but again the choice was all mine. I could have waited for getting an offer from a bigger company or join this company immediately. “I” chose the latter.

But now after several years when I look back at both the choices, I feel that there were huge positives to take out from that.

1. Not being in a premier institution saved me from being complacent. After about 2 years I really started working hard in every sphere of life. That really shaped me as an individual.
2. It made to think bigger and better, although I wouldn’t say that I have achieved great heights in life today. But I look at the positives in life now.
3. The job, gave me opportunity to work in different roles. To work as a technician(in general term), mentor, manager and even as an entrepreneur, it made to look at life from different point of views in life. Got me into some wonderful and challenging opportunities. This again played crucial part in my life and helped me expand my horizon.

So what I am trying to say here?

The above two are not the only “if only” situations in my life, there have been several. But truly I would say none of them had been a “wrong” choice. Each and every choice made what life is for me today.

By sometimes not ending up on the good side, makes you truly appreciate the moment when you do end up on the right side.
For every choice, you control the outcome. How? Not by controlling the results, but by controlling your reactions to it. You make them be good or bad.

This post is part of Lessons Journal