intentional choices

This has been stewing for a while, this business of making intentional choices.  Maybe it's because I feel as if I've been on the outside looking in...or on the inside looking out...but whatever it is, it is time to take charge.
Change is inevitable. What we must do is learn to manipulate change...put a spin on it so it's a good thing. Change is unnerving...unsettling....it is The Unknown .  I've spent entirely too much of my life fearing the "What if's". Change is unnerving and unsettling because we've gotten too complacent...too comfortable....and because it. is. hard.  But you know what?
I've made some choices about a few changes I need to make. Intentional choices. Because it is time to regroup. Time to rearrange and readjust my focus. It is time to take charge. It is time for change. Why?
Because nothing changes if nothing changes. Because I don't want my forever to be like my right now. Because nobody can do it for me. Because others don't do what they say they'll do...or they do what they say they won't... and I don't want to be like that. Because I don't want to be the one who makes someone feel as if they've been pushed aside for someone else who might be a little more important or prettier or smarter or a lot more talented. Because I'm tired of being the one who isn't seen or heard.  Because  I don't want to be the one left behind, but if I am, I want to be the one who is left standing when the dust clears.  Because if no one else will stand up for me I have no choice but to stand up for myself. And that is precisely, exactly what I mean to do. I am making an intentional and informed choice to stand up. To rise up. To stay standing. I am taking back my life, with help and guidance from God. Because I am important enough and good enough and strong enough and smart enough and talented enough...and all the other enoughs. This is who I am. And that is an intentional choice.