Intentional life - Choose your own adventure!

With the exception of tragic occurrences that seems to manifest randomly and without explanation, most people can examine their life and see how their choices led them to the present.  Many years ago I started thinking about how my choices led me to where I was.  Though I didn't really have any particular place I wanted to go, I did have income goals, educational goals (doctorate), family goals (children), and material goals (McMansion).  Husband and I have a history of manifesting change in our lives...we have done it a number of times.

This weekend I considered whether Husband and I were making these lifestyle changes as a result of a "midlife crisis" - it was a concept that was raised in a conversation with a friend.  I've thought about it a bit and started to recap all of the crazy changes we have made in the past.  For example, after working as a probation officer for five years, obtaining my Master's degree and being poised to move up in the organization (also Husband had a very decent programming job during that same time & we were making a combined yearly income of $86,000) - we both quit our jobs to move to a very rural community in the AZ mountains for a job he found that paid $32,000.  At that time we were ready for an adventure, we had goals and the move to rural AZ answered many of them.  Ultimately that move resulted in us earning a combined yearly income of $120,000 after four years. That was the place were were at prior to the McMansion, children, graduate school...

I think my point is that we have taken many risks.  I could go back further...we were married in MI in March of 1997 and we were in the process of moving to AZ in May of 1997 when I had my 21st BD in a dive bar in Mesa, AZ.  It was a crazy adventure, that resulted in us both graduating from ASU with our Bachelor's degrees and starting our professional lives. 

As my mom said recently, "I'm not the person I was back then..." I am not either.  I had different ways of looking at the world at different points in my life, I have mentally and emotionally evolved.  I have adopted new ways of thinking based on my new experiences and interactions and that, in turn, has shaped the new me.  The past me made some good decisions, and many bad ones.  I am building on the good ones with intention and deliberate choices.  I fully expect that my thinking will evolve further and that I will make different choices at later points in my life.  What I think about now is whether 'current me' is setting up 'future me' for success. As I have unburdened and dispossessed myself I have become less sentimental about stuff and can see the potential of not being tied down by it all.  As I generally make healthy choices I can see (or feel) the immediate impact of not making those choices.  As a mom I will tell my kids, "you need to listen to your body," but did I listen to mine?  Not really until recently!  I think I was too distracted by all the crazy going on around me to be quiet enough to hear what was inside. 

My ultimate point is that we do, to a large extent - excluding tragedy - choose our own adventures.  We find ourselves at crossroads all the time and if we step way back we can see that choosing one will close the alternate door and lead us down a particular path.  Choosing for things to remain the same is still a choice.  But if we are suffering, if we are not at peace with our place as a result of our past choices, exploring the other options is the only way to find the life that we imagine is possible.