Over the weekend, I read this statement, “You always have a choice.” This statement resonated with me, perhaps because of where I am in my life, but also because of what I want my children to know as they navigate their young adult lives. “You always have a choice.” Remember that; it’s important. Write about a choice you made… or one you didn’t.As always, if you choose to take up the challenge, please add a pingback to this prompt.

Sometimes, I think about advice I would give my younger self. Advice to my younger self might not help me much now, but as a parent of young adults and someone who works with young people, I have ample opportunity to influence the lives of others. So if you are navigating the early years of your adulthood—or even the later years—it’s important to remember, “You always have a choice.”

When I was very young, it was not uncommon for people to choose a career path and stick with it throughout their lives. People would work in the same job, even at the same company and with the same co-workers, for thirty or forty or more years. I don’t know that there were fewer career options at the time, but there were different expectations.

You don’t need to stay in one place. There is much greater movement than ever before, within career fields, within companies, and within ourselves about what we want to do, where we need to be, and what we’re willing to put up with. Our lives change and evolve as the world changes and evolves. Our ideas and our identities are constantly in flux. But we often fail to remember that our choices might also change and evolve over time.

My advice to my younger self—and to my current self, if I’m being honest—is to always know what your choices are. Evaluate and re-evaluate so you can always consider what you might be doing if you were doing something different. We don’t spend enough time examining our options, taking advantage of our choices. Instead, we tend to settle for something that is comfortable, often sacrificing what we really want or who we are for the “good enough.” Then we grow comfortable, and we forget to ask ourselves, “Is this really what I want?”

Pay attention! What are your emotions trying to tell you? What is that thing that is not sitting right in your brain? Why are you feeling unmotivated? Unfulfilled? Sad? Lonely? If you want to know what these feelings are trying to tell you, pay attention! You might just realize that you’ve squelched a dream because you were afraid to take a risk. It’s okay to move on and take risks. It’s okay to change things up. It’s okay to make choices that are best for you and will allow you to be your best.

You always have a choice. Don’t be afraid to change things up.