Every moment is a choice. Every choice is a responsibility.

Let´s compute just for the fun of it, to get an idea how many choices we have made to arrive at this point in time, this very moment in our life right now. In my case this is Monday, 9 January, 2017 at 7.33pm.

As it is impossible for my brain to even start thinking about the time span of a moment, I will settle for seconds so let´s assume we make one choice every second. I am 50 years and 41 days old today.

• Fifty years equal 18,250 days, plus 41 add up to 18,291 days.
• 18,291 days total 438,984 hours, plus another 19 hours today, total up to 439,003 hours.
• 439,003 hours are composed of 26,340,180 minutes, plus 33 minutes today comes to 26,340,213 minutes.
• 26,340,213 minutes equals 1,580413e9 seconds.

Um well, as I am not a math wizard, I don´t even understand the number and I am seriously wondering what the ‘e’ is doing there. Nevertheless, I understand we are talking around about 1.5 billion choices that have led me to this point in my life; and I am inescapably the product of these choices, like it or not.

Applying the axiom, ‘Every moment is a choice. Every choice is a responsibility’ combined with my personal math version of the rule of three, I come to the conclusion that:

Moments = Choices

Choices = Responsibility

Responsibility = Moments

1,580413e9 moments of responsibility. That´s a lot!

We can literally say we are accountants of our own life, i.e. we are accountable for every single moment of it.

When I think about it this is a bit overwhelming, my mind gets foggy in the attempt to grasp the magnitude of so much responsibility and would honestly like to escape the next moment of responsibility – but too late, tick, tick, tick… one moment of responsibility after the other ticking away and not a single gap to come up with anything to release me from it.

But wait a moment; if my life is the sum total of all these moments and I am the one who has made all the choices, and every choice comes with a certain quality, either wise or unwise, shaping my life, wouldn´t that mean I am a truly powerful being who can create my life the way I like it to be?

If so, responsibility would equal power. Hey, that´s not so bad after all… or is it?

Maybe the challenge is not so much in being responsible but in wielding one´s power wisely knowing that with every breath, thought, word and action we are affecting ourselves and consequently everyone and everything around us. In that sense, we are literally the creators of our own world.

Interestingly enough though, so often we feel the recipient of life or a victim to it rather than its master. And we may ask how many people actually do live lives that are deeply fulfilling, healthy, vital, abundant, harmonious, loving, purposeful and joyful etc., assuming that this is what most, if not all, people actually would like life essentially to be.

To me this seems to be a rare thing and looking at humanity worldwide we can say without doubt, something is going terribly wrong.

Okay, when we do our maths here correctly, it simply means that the predominant number of choices we make are not so wise in relation to our overall wellbeing and people in general. Considering our power and responsibility we may ask: what are we going to do about it?

Our awareness may not be capable of clocking every single moment, every single choice, but that is not necessary. There are basically only two options for us to choose from – love or anything that is not love. Therefore, will we reassess the quality of our choices and deepen the level of love and care for us and others on a moment-to-moment basis to the best of our ability? Or will we simply continue in the momentum of the billion loveless and irresponsible choices we have made up to this point?

The choice is ours and so is the power and responsibility.

Finally something is adding up – there is a simple formula to living life.

* Brain dictation in use. Please excuse arithmetical errors, typos and digits that this program is under the impression I have calculated.

By Alex Braun, Health Practitioner, Cologne, Germany

Further reading:
Taking True Responsibility For My Behaviour
‘It Was Meant to Be’ and ‘Everything Happens for a Reason’
Responsibility Redefined – It’s in the Quality and not the Action!