The thing about life is you have a choice.

In fact you have choices.

Every single day, every moment of existence is filled with abundance of choice and opportunity.

But despite this, despite the choices that are out there, there are people who fail to take them. Sometimes that is because of a lack of knowledge, sometimes because of a lack of means and sometimes because of a lack of courage. Now I’m not saying that everyone can be anything, I’m not espousing the Thatcherite dream. But I am talking about wasteful inaction.

It strikes me that there are two types of people, or perhaps two types of thinking. There are those that see opportunity and those who explain away opportunity.

“I would but….”

“It isn’t as simple as that….”

“People don’t want/like/believe…..”

And of course in every occasion they are right. Because fortune really does favour the brave.

So you may think this is trite, you may think that I say nothing more than the contents of a fortune cookie. I’m ok with that.  Because, time after time I see people who need nothing more than that.  A positive word, a helpful phrase, a call to action.  Instead, we mock, we complicate and we denigrate an idea…..because that is our way.  Failure is low risk.

But it is also the disease that will eat away at you to the moment that you die.  People who try but fail, people who hope, people who believe. These are the people who make this country great, that make their families proud, that succeed beyond their dreams.

People who mock, people who criticise, people who explain away and deny.  These are the people who go to their graves with regret.

Every day is full of choices. You know that, I know that. Which one of us is brave enough to take them?

Consider the gauntlet thrown down.