You need to choose

[Alan Armstrong]

"With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep your from growing, you need to choose." - Wayne Dyer

Have you chosen and why?

[singularity6]

That depends on the experience itself. Two events happened to me right around the same time, and profoundly affected my life. My brother got drunk and drowned back in 2007. The girl I was with for 4 years dumped me the day we buried him. While it was a toxic relationship that I was in (and I'm far better off without her,) the combination was devastating. Most of what I had worked toward in life at that point fell apart. It took me about 3 years and some grief counseling/therapy to recover. In the end, it made me a stronger person. I still morn the loss of my brother, and will until the day I die. The termination of the toxic relationship, on the other hand, was a gift.

[Alan Armstrong]

(Sorry to hear about the loss of your brother)

My brother died in 2008.

He was far too tuff for this world.

When my mum was pregnant with him my father beat my mother to try to make her have a miscarriage; he survived and was born healthy.

He grew as a pre teen enjoying food and as a child was fat, so people bullied him for it, he endured it all.

At school due to being bullied he started to become very tuff, so much so developing a reputation for it, so people would test how tuff they are by fighting him, he never lost a fight and one night due to being undefeated he was stabbed; hospitalized but survived it.

After that he joined the military ate alot more and looked similar to Arnold Schwarzenegger, was on active duty being shot at; he survived that, where some of his friends were not so lucky.

He came out of military service married, had children and enjoyed junk food.

The junk food lead to obesity which lead to being diabetic, which lead to being legally blind, to having gangrene, that lead to both legs being amputated and being put on a dialysis machine, he survived all this, as he was extremely tuff.

His girlfriend looked after him and managed everything for him, while visiting him in hospital, she contracted a staffs infection and died; consequently she was also my best friend!

He carried on without her for a short amount of time and died in his sleep.

He lived many years suffering in his life being ill due to having bad eating habits.

If he wasn't a tuff person but a weaker type he would have died many years earlier than he did; being tuff meant that he could endure alot, consequently this also understandably equates to much suffering, my mum buried him, which broke her heart and I was the one that buried her; hope they all RIP

My brother's unhealthy lifestyle has made me change mine for the better, hope I can inspire others to live a happier healthier lifestyle also.

[singularity6]

My brother was a body builder and a wrestler (ranked second in the state at 171lb his senior year, and also placed in states during his sophmore and junior years.) Looking at him, most people would have thought he was healthy. But he ate like crap, and drank way too much. He was also known for saying things like "I don't want to live past 30." Well, he didn't. This really impacted me and the decisions I've made, too.

[sensei8]

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." ~ Robert Frost

Why? It's better to have chosen, than to have not chosen at all.

Personal choices? Yes!! Professional choices? Yes!!

To many choices to speak about here, one not more profound than another, yet mostly assured, they were each important to my family and I.

Most personal...

When I was diagnosed with Afib October 4, 2016. Afib now gone, ever since my Cardio Inversion in January 2017. I made the choice to make the necessary changes in my life style; to have a much better and healthy life style.

Bringing the bad to an end!! Birthing the new!!

Watching my diet strictly, exercising, going to the gym, portions and not binging, and so on and so forth. I was a disaster...WAS!! NO MORE!! I've lost 70lbs thus far in my goal to lose 111lbs by October 2017!!

Most professional...

To accept, and resume, my previous duties and responsibilities.

But to do that, I had to make some serious personal, as well as professional choices; not, for me, an easy task. Mainly because I'm, well, STUPID to the Nth degree.

I've someone here at KF to thank for providing me with that doze of reality and truth. A truth that I refused to accept, at first, but quickly realized that this person at KF was absolutely correct in his assumptions. I was the proponent of propaganda towards a certain individual within our governing body, and towards that governing body itself.

Bitterness, anger, hurt, resentfulness, and so on and so forth; these are ugly things to carry for as long as I carried them. NO MORE!! NO MORE!! NO MORE!!

[Lupin1]

Meh. Life is life. Good things and bad things happen. Sometimes nothing happens. I don't usually go looking for some existential reason for everything that happens. I just keep living.

[singularity6]

Meh. Life is life. Good things and bad things happen. Sometimes nothing happens. I don't usually go looking for some existential reason for everything that happens. I just keep living.

I don't have a spiritual bone in my body. The "keep living" moto is easy when nothing serious is happening. The choices you make when something bad happens will shape you as an individual, however. It's in these times that you learn the most about life, and about yourself.

[sensei8]

Meh. Life is life. Good things and bad things happen. Sometimes nothing happens. I don't usually go looking for some existential reason for everything that happens. I just keep living.

I don't have a spiritual bone in my body. The "keep living" moto is easy when nothing serious is happening. The choices you make when something bad happens will shape you as an individual, however. It's in these times that you learn the most about life, and about yourself.

Solid post!!

Akin to 7 times down...8 times up, I suppose. As it possibly might be in concert with the bold type above.

[singularity6]

I try!

[sensei8]

I try!

No one can expect more than that!!