The Power of Choice

Reframing Hard Things to Work for You

While rereading a personal Top 10 book, Do Hard Things, the theme of “choice” keeps coming up as a key part of overcoming challenges. Steve Magness, the author, references multiple studies run with either mice or dogs or social experiments with people where they were faced with an issue and given a choice to deal with it…or not. Apparently, when given the ability to choose –to make something happen by our own free will– it rewires how we view challenge, approach it, and ultimately deal with it.

If we have a choice, we view the challenge as, well, a challenge – not a threat. We learn hopefulness and not hopelessness. We can make more rational decisions and think with clarity, confidence, and direction. So, how does this translate for us? If we are in a tough situation, we can remind ourselves, “Hey, I have a choice here. I’m not just ‘along for the ride’ and subject to what happens”. Even if it is something that’s sort of out of your control, you have options for how you are going to approach it mentally. The situation may be uncontrollable, but how you view it can make all the difference.

​For my competitive side of readers, this can be implemented in racing. I find a lot of struggle (both personally and when coaching athletes) comes when you get into an event, the pace is not what you expected, and the uncertainty creeps in. The chimp brain starts to chirp, “Can you hold this pace? Why is ‘so and so’ ahead of you? This is not the start I wanted…”

Instead, remember you have a choice. You aren’t subject to the pace of the race, the race is subject to the pace you want to apply. Your race is in your hands, and you can apply pressure when you want, conserve when you need to, and fuel as you have to. Choice takes a hard race from feeling like a threat to a challenge.

Perspective
One thing that we never learn until later is perspective. I try to always remember things happen FOR you, not TO you. If it was a bad race, what did you learn and apply to your next event, which was a success? If it’s getting a flat tire on your car, did it teach you where the tools and spare were + how to change it? If a job firing led to a new opportunity, which changed your life for the better, wasn’t that a positive overall?

This is where the internal “power of choice” comes in. You can choose to wallow in pity when things go south, or adapt your mind to just be open to it. To see what happens. You can say, “Oh well, let’s see what I can do with this now.” The power of choice can be used in any and every situation, from business or career to racing or grocery shopping. It doesn’t happen overnight, though, it takes time. It takes constant commitment and reminders every day as you put it into place.