Everyone knows that the choices we make affect our future. Suppose I am an intelligent student with good marks. However, being lazy, I do badly in my examinations. I am refused entry to university and cannot find a good job. The golden future I had imagined will never be. All these are all from a bad choice!
However, your choices affect your future in a way that is a lot more complicated. This is because nearly all the choices you make affect your character. Your character is displayed through your choices, but it is also formed by them. Whenever you make a choice, your character changes or grows, or diminishes （降低, 减弱） depending on whether the decision you made is wise or foolish. Your character is being made by you, bit by bit, choice by choice. And so, you become the sort of person who will maké a certain kind of choice in a certain situation.
Some will argue this is not true. After all, the field of human choice is a narrow one. Most of the things that form us in our lives are not subject to choice. We cannot choose when and where to be born, whether our families will be rich or poor, kind or cruel. We cannot even entirely control who we will meet in our lives. With so much that we cannot choose, how can we be said to be responsible for anything?
There is some truth in this. We are thrown into life without any say over the matter, and have little control over most of it. However, we do have some power of choice, and we do control the most important thing of all: how we respond to circumstances. We can choose to keep struggling in hard times, or to give up.
This ability to choose how we behave and respond is a great gift. It is our key to having confidence in the future. It is human nature to fear the future, as the future is unknown. You cannot entirely control what will happen to you tomorrow. But if you have confidence in your character, formed by years of making good choices, then you do know one thing for certain about the future: no matter what happens, you will make a choice that you will be proud of.
At every moment, then, practise forming your character when you make your choices, no matter how small they are. Remember: your choices form your character. And your character determines your future.
