Your life is defined by the choices you make. I say this over and over again. The choices you make will come to define the next stage of your life and the next and the next and the next after that. What you decide to do defines your entire life. But, what about the choice you didn’t make? What about the time when you turned left instead of turning right?
 
Here’s the fact, you can never go back. You can never remake that choice. At best, you can try to recreate the elements that led you to that choice. But, once the other choice has been made, that initial choice, in its original circumstances, will never be provided to you again. Now what?
 
Most people learn to accept the choices that they have made. They may not like them; they may wish they had made the other choice. But, life is life, and what can you do? You made the choice and all you are left with is the reality that choice has presented you.
 
Some people try to run away from the choices they make. They breakup with their boy or girlfriend, they file for divorce, they quit their job, they buy that car or that whatever they once really wanted but did not initially purchase. But, all of these choices are simply running from the choices you already made. No matter how hard you try to break away from that previous choice, that is the choice you lived, and no matter how far you run, no matter how you try to patch up that mistake you now consider that you once made, that does not change the fact that you made that choice, you lived the reality of that choice, and no matter how much you hide from this fact, no matter how much lie about this truth, you made a choice and that was the choice you made. All you are ultimately left with is the reality and the next stage of your life based upon that choice.
 
Think about a choice you made that you later regretted making. This can be a small thing, or it can something you consider was large and truly life altering. Go back to the place and the time when you made that choice. Why did you make it? Can you remember why you chose to do what you did? Really think this through. Why did you make that choice?
 
Now, think about when you decided that choice was a mistake. What made you regret making that choice? Was it because it altered your life in some negative manner? Was it because what you chose to do damaged your life and the future life you had planned for yourself? Did that choice hurt someone else? Was the person you chose to be with or chose to do that whatever with, did they hurt you? Really think this through.
 
How much time do you spend regretting that initial choice and/or other one-time choices that you have made in your life?
 
Here’s the reality, no matter how much you regret making that choice, no matter how much time you spend fantasying about what your life would have been had you not made that choice, the fact of the fact is, that is the choice you made. End of story. No matter how far you run from it, no matter how many lies you tell to hide the fact that you made that choice, you cannot change that choice. Knowing that, what are you going to do about it now?
 
I do not believe that there is one person who does not regret making at least one choice in their life. For most of us, there are a number of choices we realize that we most probably should not have made. This fact is the causation factor of why so many people lie to people that they later met in life—this is why so many people attempt to distort their past to others. This is also why so many lie to themselves and/or cause themselves to be driven into deep depression.
 
The truth of this reality can be understood, on the individual level, that as there is nothing you can do to change that initial choice, all you can do is to consciously live with the consequences. If you can fix it, absolutely try to fix it! If you cannot, understand your mindset at the time you originally made that choice. That’s why you really need to pierce into your veil of mind stuff and come to understand why you made that choice in the first place.
 
Some people make the same mistakes over and over again. Why? Because they do not come to truly know themselves. They do not find their own level of self-actualization. They remain lost in a life driven only by desire and anger and greed and vanity and all of that stuff that we all know is not good. Be more than that! Know yourself!
 
It’s true, we can’t change the decisions we have made. And yes, those decisions may have altered our life in a way we believe to be detrimental to our dreamed of existence. But, we can come to a space where we now only make conscious decisions. A place where we rebuke selfishness and only give, not only to our greater life but to that of humanity as a whole.
 
The choice you made is the choice you made. You can’t change that. But, what choice are you going to make next?