Reflecting on Choices 🙏 · Real Men Real Style Community

Jeffrey Plotka

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7d • General Discussion 💬

Reflecting on Choices 🙏

The older I get, the more I find myself thinking about how much of life is shaped by the choices we make.

Not just the big choices.

The small ones too.

How we start the day.

How we respond when something does not go our way.

How we treat people.

How we take care of ourselves.

How we present ourselves.

What we give our attention to.

What we allow to influence us.

Even choosing not to decide is still, in its own way, a choice.

I think that realization has made me much more intentional about the life I want to live. I choose gratitude. I choose to look for reasons to be happy. I choose contentment — not because I have stopped growing or learning, but because I do not want my happiness to depend on constantly chasing something else.

I choose to keep improving while still appreciating who I am today.

I choose to take care in how I dress and present myself because it reflects the standard I want to hold myself to.

And that includes the little things too.

I choose to be well groomed.

I choose to take care of my skin and moisturize.

I choose a fragrance because I enjoy smelling good and because, to me, that is simply another part of presenting myself with care.

None of those things are about vanity.

They are about stewardship.

Taking care of myself.

Taking pride in the details.

And showing up in a way that feels consistent with who I want to be.

I also choose to be available to other people.

To encourage.

To help.

To mentor when I can.

To share what I have learned while respecting that everyone else is on their own journey.

That may be one of the most important choices of all.

Because whatever experience, knowledge, confidence, or perspective we gain along the way means more, at least to me, when we can use some of it to help somebody else.

And perhaps just as importantly, I choose not to let every outside opinion carry the same weight.

That does not mean I am unwilling to listen. Quite the opposite.

I hope I am always willing to learn, reconsider, and improve.

But there is a difference between being open-minded and allowing somebody else’s preferences to determine who you should be.

Not everyone is going to understand the way I dress.

Not everyone is going to appreciate the things I value.

Not everyone is going to agree with how I choose to live.

And that is perfectly okay.

Their choices belong to them. Mine belong to me.

I think one of the gifts of maturity is becoming increasingly comfortable with that.

You can respect another person without needing their approval.

You can appreciate a different point of view without abandoning your own.

You can be content with who you are while still working every day to become better.

And you can choose happiness and gratitude even when life is not perfect.

Do I always make the right choice?

Of course not.

But I am becoming more aware that the life I build is, in many ways, the accumulation of the choices I make over and over again.

So I want to choose carefully.

I want to choose intentionally.

I want to choose gratitude over entitlement, contentment over comparison, optimism over cynicism, self-respect over neglect, and generosity over indifference.

And I want to keep growing without losing appreciation for where I already am.

Those are choices I am happy to keep making.

I hope that, as I share some of my own reflections, they resonate with — or perhaps even help — some of you along the way.

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Reflecting on Choices 🙏