The first time you make an unfamiliar choice, you must do it deliberately, consciously, knowingly. If you are always seduced by sugary foods, the first time you say no to one must be something you decided upon first.

 

Everything proceeds on your own decision. But, having once made an unfamiliar choice, it now becomes a choice you once made, and will unbidden present itself to you the next time you face the same choice. And of course the more times you reinforce a choice, the more it appears unbidden, until it seems to you that there is a choice, where one didn’t exist before. You can choose to ignore sugary food.

 

Once having refused it, the next time you are offered it, or notice it, or think of it, there will be the choice you once made. So you see the power of conscious choice.

 

In any situation you can ask yourself: what is the unfamiliar choice here? There is always a choice, even when you don’t think so. Remember how far away you are from seeing everything. Suspend judgment.

 

Habit is a prison

Until you make the unfamiliar choice consciously, in any context of your life or attention, it can never slip by your watchdog mentality. You must disarm the watchdog, and invite the unfamiliar choice in. And then do it. Thus does this choice go into your library of choices, which, if it contained only one book before, now contains two.

 

 

Making the unfamiliar choice in one context encourages you to see unfamiliar choices in every direction, and in this way is the warp and weft of your world transformed.

 

 

Each time you deliberately choose an unfamiliar choice, like so many ghosts unbidden, do legions of other choices summon themselves, and surround you. Then you realize that everything is a choice, and every moment is a choice, and you are set free.

 

Tell a different story