Ever have one of those defining moments? I had one the other evening.
Earlier this year, I moved to the Denver area after living in northeast Colorado for over seven years. The move has forced me, once again, to get out of my comfort zone and go to events or meetings or church knowing I will not know anybody. To be honest, that can be tiring and draining for me. Yet, I know that in the long run it will help me get to where I want to be. I want to live in an area where I know others and have friends close by to do things with.
The other evening was one of those moments where I could either choose to stay home and be comfortable and not have to deal with meeting new people, yet once again, or go to a meeting where I didn’t know anybody, but was very interested in the topic and the discussion. Inside, I knew that whichever decision I made, it had the potential to not just affect that evening, but my life.
I think this is where we mess up sometimes. We think it’s only a decision for an evening, but in reality, it can affect an entire life. It reminds me of a decision I made years ago that I recently realized how it impacted my life.
As a 2nd year graduate student, I and three other students received scholarships from a business organization in Phoenix, Arizona. As a recipient of the scholarship, I agreed to attend their meetings in Phoenix and to give a speech at one of those meetings. But I blew it. After attending several of the meetings, it was my turn to speak at the next meeting. On the evening I was to speak, a friend went with me. The meeting was a couple of hours from where I lived. She was going to go see another friend while I was at the meeting. But the closer I got to where the meeting was being held, the more I didn’t want to go. Yes, I was nervous about speaking, but instead of overcoming that, I chose not to go to the meeting. Instead, I chose to spend the evening with my friends. It was much easier to do that, but that certainly wasn’t choosing the high road. Instead, I caved. I gave in. I took the low road. I think that decision opened the door in my life to make some very mediocre decisions after that.
So, back to last week when I had the opportunity to go meet friends I didn’t yet know, or stay home and be comfortable. I chose to go meet new friends. We had a great evening together. We had fun. We laughed and we enjoyed being together. I can’t wait till next time.
May we choose the high road, even when it means getting way out of our comfort zone. It is those choices that will get us to where we really want to be.
How about you? What have been your defining moments when it comes to choosing the ‘high road’ vs the ‘low road’?
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