DEEP THOUGHTS - What Is The Right Choice?

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What Is The Right Choice?

“You can be right to everyone sometimes, you can be right to some people all the time, but you can’t be right to everyone all the time” – Odigwe Jilams 

The above question is a summary of the internal struggle we encounter everyday in life. It is as a result of the actions, decisions we take; time after time, day after day and when, probably, it doesn’t go as expected, questions like “Did I do the right thing”, “Did I make the right choice” assault our minds and invade our thoughts.
Being right is a very difficult attribute to pin-point. This is because some actions are wrong, but they are done in order to achieve the right results. E.g lying to cover up a teammate’s shortcomings to ensure optimum teamwork and a successful output.
This is where the “right thing” and the “right choice” have a slight difference in this context. This is because the right thing in the above example is to tell the truth, but the right choice is to make a decision that will positively affect teamwork which is why covering up the fault seems like the best way to achieve it.
What then is the right choice? Personally, it is simply acting or making decisions for the development and progress of everyone around you. Someone who makes decisions, putting into perspective it’s impact on others is someone I rather work or make friends with than someone who is solely engrossed in ensuring and proving they are right regardless of the consequences.
This set of people are mostly selfish, self-centered and more often than not, their being right creates more harm than good.
Being right is not just about being stereotypical and robotically right.  It’s about knowing when to be right at the right time and also knowing when to be wrong so the right things can take place.  Imagine arguing with an elderly person to prove you're right, even though the elder is wrong. Or arguing with your spouse to prove that you are right? It’s just a recipe for disaster on your part.
Your being right would cause more harm to your relationship/marriage even if you are right. What stops you from refraining and then revisiting the issue when the mood is lighter? This is where being right requires wisdom.
Apart from wisdom, making the right choice also requires patience, knowledge and a great deal of flexibility. Flexibility because with wisdom you will know when to let go and when not to be influenced by popular opinions or actions.
As the quote suggests, the right choice will not be appealing to everyone, because you can’t please everybody. However in life, you will always make choices that directly or indirectly affect the people around you, no matter how hard you try to escape it; but if you can learn to make the choice that promotes selflessness on your part and most importantly appeases your conscience, you will be able to relate with your family, friends, co-workers, even random people and this will in turn make you earn their respect.
Note therefore that every action has a ripple effect. We must endeavor in all our decisions to make the right choices that we can live with.

Jilams Odigwe is an enthusiastic writer who borders the line between a realist and optimist. His love for art is fluid, which makes Bon vivant of some sort...

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