Educated choices

Life is about choices. Choices we make and choices we don’t. What I see as the definition of us as individuals are our educated choices.

What is an educated choice? It is a choice we make based upon complete knowledge.

I don’t pass judgment on people till I see the choices they make after I know they have been educated. Making decisions without knowledge does not truly represent someone. It is when they know exactly what is going on and act accordingly that you see the truth.

Lets take smoking as an example. How do you view the smoker? 1st you have to determine their level of understanding. If they smoke with a simple knowledge of its effects the person may just be misguided or ignorant. The person who fully understands the long term effects and the fact that it will eventually take them from us is selfish and stupid. The educated smoker forces us to question their trust simply due to the fact that they don’t care about themselves which makes us need to ask how can they care about us?

Knowing the truth based on a persons choices and level of education gives us the ability to choose how we will deal with this individual.

Education is more then schooling. Education is about knowledge. Many will graduate with a master’s degree but have no knowledge outside of a text book. These people may be smart but their knowledge may be limited.

Most of us make daily choices based upon social conditioning. Because we are taught our entire lives to believe in certain things we choose accordingly. There is no truth in these actions. Truth can only be found in the choices we process based upon our personal experience and knowledge that goes beyond conditioning. Do you not steal because you fear retribution? Just because we don’t do something out of fear doesn’t mean we don’t want to still do it. What this demonstrates is control not truth. The truth is that we want to do some things but are to scared to do them.

There is a difference between acting due to fear and acting due to knowledge. The truth can be hidden behind fear and control. Only we know the truth in this instance. We know what we truly want. The question becomes why? In the answer we can find the truth about us and we can deal with it.

Look at your actions. Feel your desires. See if they match. I don’t know a person that doesn’t have some aspect of their life not in balance. We all want something that we don’t act in accordance with. Some are negative desires we suppress and some are positive one’s we fall short of acting towards.

Lets deal with negative desires 1st. I am going back to stealing. You can rationalize it or you can be honest. Taking something that does not belong to you is simply wrong. A persons ability to cope with the loss does not make your choice any less wrong. Stealing money from the rich is just as bad as stealing from the poor. Wrong is wrong. You want something that was earned by another. You want something you are unwilling to work for. This is the issue at hand. Right now you may not be acting upon this desire due to fear. Take the time to truly understand the desire and start making choices based upon understanding truth vs. fear.

The same is true for positive desires. All of us want something more out of life. Some of us act to achieve great success and others refuse to act. We have to look at what we want then see what we are doing or not doing to reach our desired goal. Fear and control are involved here too. Some are afraid to act and others are conditioned to believe something is not achievable. The truth is that we can take action towards any goal by taking an inventory of our fears and moving beyond our conditioning.

Fear of success. How is this possible?! It is more common then most of us would like to admit. Success does not come easy. It is something we have to earn. We must have a belief system, a call to action, and the ability to take action. All of this sounds great and easy but in reality is kind of scary and hard. With success we have to deal with judgment, effort, and change. We deal with these things daily with or without success. I would rather deal with them thru success.

Conditioning for failure or status quo?! Most of us are not fortunate enough to live in a positive environment. Most people are bombarded with ideas that limit our potential. Ideas like race, sex, and education will limit our ability to achieve in today’s society. This is ridiculous. I don’t care what color your skin is, who you are coming home to at night, or how far your schooling went. You can be as successful as you are willing to work. Nobody can keep you down. We all have the freedom to dream and the freedom to take action to make our dreams come true.

Don’t ignore the people and things that are telling you that you will never be more then you are right now. See where these ideas are coming from. Most will keep you down because they are down themselves or they want control. Are you going to give them the keys to your world or are you going to keep control of your life and go where you want to go?

Accept your fears and conditioning. Find the truth in all of it. The truth will remove these burdens and free you to act honestly.

I was raised in a upper middleclass family. My Mom is an internationally renowned retailer and my Father is a very successful stockbroker. My home conditioning was go to school, get a good job, marriage, kids, dog, car, house, etc…. My Catholic schooling just reinforced all of this. Growing up I never knew that life could be any different. I was given a formula to life and I accepted it.

I have always been a thinker and an artist, fine and martial. I followed along like a good suburban kid is supposed to but I always had things that were uniquely mine. I was never fully content with life as it was proposed to me. I wanted more out of life but never knew I could have it.

Around 16 years old I came in touch with ideas that opened me up to new possibilities. I started to understand that life was what I made of it not what was presented to me. This lead to me exploring my options and introspection.

I always had an aversion to college. For some reason it didn’t make sense for me. Ask my Mom, at 8 or 9 years old I was telling people that college is for people who don’t know what they want yet. I was in a position where college was a must - not really but I was still drinking the coolade. Instead of Notre Dame I went to the Maryland Institute College of Art. With no previous art education and a conservative education I got into one of the top 3 art colleges in the country.

While at MICA my confidence in my ideas started to grow. I realized that my initial college is not for me idea was true. I left school behind and never looked back after 3 years of struggling to find myself. This lead me back home and back to my original passion which was and still is martial arts.

I had a studio to paint in and a dojo to train in. This lead to lots of self exploration which affirmed my ideas about life and what I wanted out of life. In the end I am doing exactly what I was meant to do. I fought in 10 countries and just about every state. I run a dojo and I paint almost every day.

The lesson I learned is that my dreams are real and all of us can do what we feel is right for us if we truly believe and are willing to take action.

I was afraid of what my choices would bring. I was afraid to take action on my own. But in the end I realized that living my life by my rules is more important then following someone else’s vision for me. I am who I am and that is that. I accept who I am and I am confident that I can achieve what I want.

I made an educated choice about what direction I want my life to take. I embraced my fears and my conditioning. I freed myself to make real choices.