It’s easy to get into this state of mind that we have to do things.

We have to get out of bed at a certain time. We have to dress a certain way. We have to be nice to other people.

But let’s hold on for a second. Nobody has to do anything.

You could get up at 11:00am instead of 8:00am tomorrow. When you finally get up, you could then walk outside completely butt-naked. And then, in broad daylight, you could slap the first person you see. The world wouldn’t explode if you did these things. You’d probably live to see another day.

The only consideration is that actions have consequences. If you wake up late, you might miss an important meeting. If you walk around naked, you might be arrested for public indecency. If you slap a stranger, you might get beaten up yourself.

When faced with a dilemma, the key question to ask ourselves is whether a pursuit is worth the consequences. If you care more about sleep than a meeting, you might take the extra three hours sleep. But you might not slap a stranger whilst naked because the risk of being arrested and beaten up outweighs the potential thrill of it.

The important thing to remember is you can still do these things. The world won’t stop you if you do.

So if we ever catch ourselves feeling down because we have to do something we don’t like, let’s remember we have multiple options available, such as:

And the consequences:

We have only one story to tell in this life. Let’s make it a good one.