My last generative edge post was a while ago and there is unfinished business. TT rightly outed me by pointing me to the hilarious www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com and entry  #122 – Moleskins. Busted.

So moving on to more ‘white people msuings’ I want to dedicate this post to Dell and Kelsy (not their real names but you know who you are.) Dell and Kelsy are colleagues at an organisation we worked with a few years back and they say nice things about this blog. In my recent silence they were kind enough to ask if I was OK. Dell and Kelsy leadership roles but do not have much scope for discretion or flexibility. It is easy to feel stuck.

One of the things I am learning from my partner Maria is that there is always choice. There is always choice, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences in the wake of those choices. You can do anything you want. Really. You could speed. You could run naked through the streets. You could move to Antarctica. You could make peace with an enemy. You could shave your head. You could quit your job and try to live off next to nothing and experiment with self-sufficiency. Weigh up the consequences and then make courageous choices. We only have one life.

Without exercising our choice, life happens to us. Of course there is heaps of stuff that does happen to us, we really don’t have choice except from how we deal with it. What I am talking about is the capacity to move beyond the habits and momentum of the status quo and choose the things that we wish for.

The parallel thought that goes with this, is that if we weigh up the consequences and determine to maintain the status quo, we need to choose to do so. Embrace the positives of our current situation and suck the marrow out of it.

Now I don’t pretend making significant choices is easy. I do know that change is hard and we all need encouragement to exercise courage. Especially in the workplace and family; inertia and poor habits are too often swept under the carpet. Sometimes it all feels too hard. It is hard, but it’s not too hard.

How’s this for some kitchen table philosophy? Deeply satisfying things in life don’t just happen, they come from hard fought battles with discipline and courage. That’s what I reckon anyway.