To Choose One’s Own Way

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way”

— Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

I have always wanted to live my life to the fullest. I always wanted to give my very best, pushing myself to the ultimate limit. But often I find that daily tasks get in the way of progressing there. Little did I realize, time may fly super fast while I was so immersed with daily task craziness. Not to mention all the hours wasted on a meaningless activity like scrolling through social media all day.

Taking a rest is good. But we gotta strictly difference rest and excuses or procrastination. In my most unmotivated days, often I remember a section from Robin Sharma’s book, The Leader Who Had No Title.

“How do you want to reach your last day? Which path will you take?” To answer this question, Sharma stated 10 Human Regrets and 10 Human Victories as comparisons.

10 Human Regrets

1. You reach your last day with the brilliant song that your life was meant to sing still silent within you.
2. You reach your last day without ever having experienced the natural power that inhabits you to do great work and achieve great things.
3. You reach your last day realizing that you never inspired anyone else by the example you set.
4. You reach your last day full of pain at the realization that you never took any bold risks and so you never received any bright rewards.
5. You reach your last day understanding that you missed the opportunity to catch a glimpse of mastery because you bought into the lie that you had to be resigned to mediocrity.
6. You reach your last day and feel heartbroken that you never learned the skill of transforming adversity into victory and lead into gold.
7. You reach your last day regretting that you forgot that work is about being radically helpful to others rather than being helpful only to yourself.
8. You reach your last day with the awareness that you ended up living the life that society trained you to want versus leading the life you truly wanted to have.
9. You reach your last day and awaken to the fact that you never realized your absolute best nor touched the special genius that you were built to become.
10. You reach your last day and discover you could have been a leader and left this world so much better than you found it. But you refused to accept this mission because you were just too scared. And wasted a life.

10 Human Victories

1. You reach your end full of happiness and fulfillment on realizing that you are all used up — having spent the fullness of your talents, the biggest of your resources, and best of your potential doing great work and leading a rare-air life.
2. You reach your end knowing that you played at a standard of concentrated excellence and held yourself to the most impeccable standards in each thing you did.
3. You reach your end in noisy celebration for having the boldness of spirit to have regularly confronted your largest fears and realized your highest visions.
4. You reach your end and recognize that you became a person who build people up versus one who tore people down.
5. You reach your end with the understanding that while your journey may have not always been a smooth one, whenever you got knocked down you instantly got back up — and at all times, never suffered from any loss optimism.
6. You reach your end and bask in the staggering glory of your phenomenal achievements along with the rich value you have contributed to the lives of the people you were lucky to serve.
7. You reach your end and adore the strong, ethical, inspirational, and empathetic person you grew into.
8. You reach your end and realize that you were a genuine innovator who blazed new trails instead of following old roads.
9. You reach your end surrounded by teammates who call you a rock star, customers who say you’re a hero, and loved ones who call you a legend.
10. You reach your end as a true Leader Without a Title, knowing that the great deeds you did will endure long after your death and that your life stands as a model of possibility.

The first time I read this, it was such a slap for me. I have so many ‘what ifs’ proving that I got so many things that I haven’t tried. I looked back and suddenly the thought of every chances ignored by me due to fear, feeling inferior or mediocrity cames up. God, how I realized that I haven’t live my life to the fullest.

Yes, I know life can never be that simple to be made as only two comparisons. Or maybe you have different definition of regrets and victories. But what’s noted here is that we were never a victim in our own life. We can choose (or at least plan) how things will end and set the flag there. The good news is the choice is in our hands, in every small decision we choose every day. And it can never be taken away.

It never means that we have to live a restless and demanding life. Just let’s never forget the bigger picture, the goals that we want to achieve in the end. So that we can be more mindful in making decisions each day.

So, have you set your flag somewhere? Wherever and whatever it is, I wish you the best of all this world could give. Let’s live our life to the fullest and keep on progressing till the very end. Little by little, baby steps.

Cheers,

— Tera