Episode #86 Accept The Consequences

Feeling tired lately? Crippled by debt? Did you fail yet another test? This week, Dr. Michael Brown and Nick Gillispie reiterate the power of our choices when we find ourselves stuck, stale, or struggling.

Show Notes

I remember having a conversation with one of those college students just as he had found out that he had failed out of school. And we were having a dialogue, and he was just beginning to hem and haw and make excuses – professor this, organized like this, all these. And I was like, ‘What about you? Did you skip class?’
Nick Gillispie

Three Problems

  • We often crave control of our choices while simultaneously refusing to accept the consequences of our choices.
  • We will continually create negative consequences for ourselves if we continually make unhealthy and unhelpful choices
  • Whether we like to admit it or not, we often choose to be tired, choose to fail a test, and choose to lose our jobs.

Three Principles

  • There is no such thing as a neutral choice, but every decision carries its own positive and negative consequences.
  • To a significant degree, the life we live today is the life we have chosen for ourselves.
  • Accepting the consequences of our choices can actually be incredibly freeing because it helps us regain control of our lives.

Three Practices

  • Examine every frustration in your life by identifying which choices have contributed to them.
  • Whenever you’ve determined that an undesirable circumstance is a consequence of your choices, consider, “What choices can I make that are the opposite of the choices that led me here?”
  • Verbally acknowledge to a trusted friend: “This is a consequence of my choices.”