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We all make choices every single day, from the minuscule (“Should I hit snooze one more time?”) to the monumental (“What career path should I pursue?”). And while we often focus on making the “right” choice, there’s a far more empowering perspective: the ability to make your choices work for you, regardless of what they are.

This isn’t about ignoring the consequences or pretending every decision is perfect. Instead, it’s about adopting a mindset that empowers you to extract value, learning, and positive outcomes from every choice you make. It’s the difference between being a passenger in your life and being the pilot, actively steering your course.

Own Your Decisions, Own Your Power

The first step in making your choices work for you is to truly own them. Regret, self-blame, or wishing you could go back in time drains your energy and prevents progress. Once a decision is made, it’s done. Shift your focus from what could have been to what can be now.

Take, for example, a career change that didn’t pan out as expected. Instead of dwelling on the “mistake,” own the decision. Acknowledge that you made it with the information you had at the time. This acceptance is crucial for moving forward constructively.

The Art of Adaptation and Leverage

Once you own your choices, you can then begin to adapt and leverage them. This involves:

• Extracting Lessons: Every choice, successful or not, offers valuable insights. What did you learn about yourself? About others? About a particular situation? Even a “bad” choice can teach you what you don’t want, clarifying your path forward.
• Reframing the Narrative: We often tell ourselves stories about our choices. If a decision didn’t yield the immediate desired outcome, our internal narrative might become one of failure. Challenge that narrative. Can you reframe it as a detour, a learning experience, or a stepping stone to something better?
• Identifying Unexpected Opportunities: Sometimes, a choice that seems less than ideal can unexpectedly open new doors. A cancelled trip might lead to a spontaneous local adventure. A job rejection might push you to explore a more fulfilling entrepreneurial venture. Be open to these serendipitous moments.
• Strategic Adjustment: Making your choices work for you isn’t about blindly sticking to a path. It’s about being agile. If a choice isn’t serving you, how can you adjust, pivot, or modify your approach to align it more closely with your goals? This might mean course-correcting, setting new boundaries, or seeking different resources.

It’s About Mindset, Not Magic

Ultimately, the power of making your choices work for you isn’t a magical spell; it’s a powerful mindset. It’s the belief that you are capable of navigating whatever comes your way and that every experience, positive or negative, contributes to your growth.

When you embrace this approach, you transform from someone who reacts to life’s events into someone who actively shapes their reality. You become more resilient, more resourceful, and ultimately, more empowered. So, the next time you make a choice, big or small, remember: the real power lies not just in the choice itself, but in your ability to make it work for you.

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Most people only commit to action if they feel a certain level of motivation. And they only feel motivation when they feel an emotional inspiration.

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Mark Manson

A big question in any change process has to be: change to what?

Any deliberate attempt to change the way people feel, behave and act is full of assumptions and power dynamics. The Hitler Youth movement was a change programme, ethnic cleansing is a change programme, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are change programmes. Equally, Ghandi’s Salt March, Nelson Mandela’s campaign against apartheid, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Suffragette movement and Norwegian resistance of Nazi occupation were also change programmes. I am sure you will consider some of these as ‘good’ and others as ‘bad’. The direction of change is fundamentally important.

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David Key (LinkedIn)