Choices. We make them every day.

Would you rather

I make a lot of my choices based on how much energy it will cost me. Energy is important. If I don’t have energy then my choices are more limited.

In my email this morning I received a survey about Metastatic Breast Cancer. I don’t always participate in random surveys, but I when they relate to my breast cancer journey I will usually check them out. The questions were typical for these kind of surveys: What medications have you or are you taking? How often do you receive treatments? In the past 30 days how many times have you been to the doctor?

A couple of questions in particular got me thinking. The survey wanted to know: Has your metastatic cancer interfered with your daily activity? Have you not been able to do something that you wanted to do?

My answers: Yes and Yes.

My sister-in-law and I just took a short stay-cation in Austin to celebrate our birthdays (mine in July and hers in August). We had a great time. But these Poolsidequestions haunted me as I thought about things that we didn’t do because of my fatigue and lack of being able to walk long distances.

Don’t get me wrong. We did LOTS of things and spent some great quality time together. In fact, according to my new Garmin Vivosmart (birthday present), I actually walked over 5000 steps two days in a row. We did not just sit around and drink wine. Well, we might have done some of that.

But thinking about the questions in the survey I realized that there were some things that we did not do. As I said earlier, my choices are made so that I do not deplete my energy.

What is important to me? That is the question I ask when I am making my choices. If shopping were more important, we would have expended all of my energy walking the outdoor shopping center. If spending quality time with my sister-in-law was more important then we would drive to the location of the stores we wanted to visit (Yes, shopping was always part of the equation, just not the most important part).

As I thought about those questions I realized that the choices I make help me define my priorities.

Priorities. We define them by the choices we make.

My youngest daughter is starting her senior year of High School next month. There will be lots of choices to be made (not just by her). Will I tell her I am too tired instead of going to the football game to watch her perform with the band? No. Will I make choices to show her she is my priority this year? Yes. Every Day. Because that is my #Builtalife

Are you making choices that don’t align with your priorities? Are they really your priorities or are you making the wrong choices?

Photo Credit: Enokson via Compfight cc