Choices and Consequence…

Reclaim your life…

It is the night before an examination, I should be studying, but my roommate asks me to come out with her and some friends. It definitely did seem like it was up to me what I do. I could have stay home and study or I could spend the night out with my friends. The choice was mine to make and it was certainly up to me. And when I arrived exhausted to my exam the following morning, I felt justified blaming myself for failing to do what I should have done and what I could have done.

Often times, i observe people say, “Nobody can tell me what to do. I have the freedom to do anything I want “. 

Freedom, free choice, and free will are all extremely essential to us, especially in this day and age. Sometimes I wonder if we have a realistic concept of freedom. For instance, do we recognize that our human freedom, while genuine, is a limited freedom? It is constrained by a variety of factors. It is constrained by natural laws. I cannot defy the rules of time. I’d love to have lived in the 16th century, but I can’t travel back in time. Our freedom is not absolute in these and other ways. However, this does not imply that we are completely determined. We have the freedom to choose many things within certain limitations, and our decisions have consequences for which we are responsible. Every human being possesses free will. While establishing that humans can think and act freely as rational and moral beings, we should keep in mind that whatever we do comes back to us and the repercussions, whether good or terrible, are unavoidable. 

We are responsible for the consequences of our decisions because we have the ability to choose. As a result, it is imperative that we first learn to make good choices and then develop the willpower to act on them. Responsibility entails the ability to respond rather than just react. This capacity to pause, think on the implications of our choices, and then utilize our free will to respond consciously and responsibly in order to make the “right” choices is a life skill we should adopt as business leaders.

I’ve learned through time, and even more so in the Nature of Human Being course that my life on a daily basis is a series of choices I have to make responsible choices for the rest of my life. I am free to choose my actions but I am not free from the consequences.