Many times in my life as I begin to look back from where I began and where I stopped, I wondered if it is my choice or was it my belief that I took that certain path in my life. The big question is, is it really important whether it is a choice or a belief? Being practical and realistic, I do indeed need to know if it was the belief that decided everything or it was because of the choice that I made due to the various options made available at the time of decision.

I was really curious on what is a choice and what is a belief. Having done my fair share of ‘googling’ and ‘wikipedia-ing’, I have realised that a choice consists of the mental process of thinking involved with the process of judging the merits of multiple options and then, selecting one of them for action. However, a belief is a mental acceptance of the truth, actuality, or validity of something. This also goes to show that one can actually ‘carry out’ a belief without even going through the motion of wondering or thinking about various options available.

Through our lives, we have always been presented with a list of choices on many things. From our daily routine, we can already have a list of choices. Even from small things which can be really trivial like, the kind of toothpaste we want to use when we brush our teeth. Or even, what we want to have for our breakfast and also, what we would like to wear for the day. Each and every minute of our lives, we are faced with choices. Besides these little things in our lives, we are also faced with choices like if we want to continue to stay in our job, get married to that special someone, etc. Notably, with choices, we would also be faced with consequences as well as situations that arise as a result of the choice we make in our lives.

It is always good to have choices in life. With choices, we can decide on a course of action and no matter what the decision is, we always remember, the choice was ours to make and whether the choice was a good one or a bad one, it is still a choice made available to us.

However, let us not forget about the beliefs we have too. Many people from all walks of life, have different kinds of beliefs cultivated by their own culture, tradition, religious and personal upbringings which may be passed down from generation to generation or even, just within their own families. For example, the Chinese believe that by the age of 28, you should already be married and have your own family. Failing which, you would be deemed to be an outcast whereby you are considered to be ‘left on the shelf’ and such a description is undesirable. Another example of a belief that one might have, if you do good onto others, others will do good onto you as well.

It is hard to determine whether our beliefs is good or detrimental to us. They are afterall, formed at stages of our lives or even, throughout our lives via repetitions that nurtures it or even, common sense knowledge made known to us. But we must also remember that physical trauma caused by the physical or mental sense, can also alter our beliefs.

Having said all of the above, we face our daily life with plenty of choices and plenty of beliefs we have always known. Whether your choice is made based on your belief or just plainly on the only available options you have, it is still yours to make. Hence, live your life to the fullest without looking back!