We are all just a single moment away from becoming a different person. A whisper of fate. A sudden twist. The moment before and the moment after, and the space in between is where life shifts forever.

 

A heartbeat before impact, the driver gripping the wheel had a choice. Brake or swerve. A decision so minuscule in time yet monumental in consequence. A father sits in a hospital waiting room, the air thick with antiseptic and unspoken prayers. Just hours ago, he was discussing dinner plans with his wife. Now, a single phone call has rewritten his world.

At the cross-roads of life, choices stand like unmarked signposts. They ask nothing of us but to decide, yet they demand everything in return. Some choices appear mundane — what to wear, what to eat, which route to take home — but even these have the potential to ripple into eternity. Others are seismic. Stay or leave. Hold on or let go. Say yes or say no.

 

The woman standing at the immigration counter had spent the past year debating this very moment. The weight of her past and the pull of her future fought within her as she gripped her passport. ‘This is it,’ she thought. ‘One stamp, and I rewrite my story.’ The officer barely glanced at her before stamping approval. A single motion of his hand, yet to her, it was the severance from everything she had once been.

 

Life often disguises destiny as a choice. But sometimes, the choices at the cross-roads are what sculpt destiny itself.

For me, one of the most defining choices came during a tough separation in my marriage. At that very cross-road, I had a career decision to make — one that seemed to zigzag my life in ways I could never have predicted. That choice led to the creation of the #Unshakable brand, born from the resilience that comes with embracing uncertainty. The decision to podcast forced deeper introspection than I had ever known, leading to the publication of The Love That Lasts, with more works in the pipeline.

 

And then, there are the choices we do not even realise we are making—the ones we sleepwalk into, the friendship we let fade or decide to fight for, the love we neglect or choose to re-ignite, the dream we push to ‘someday’ until someday becomes never, the slow erosion of courage until all that remains is a person we no longer recognise.

 

Yet, amid the chaos of cross-roads, there is an #Unshakable truth: choice is power. Choice is autonomy. The ability to carve a new path, to pivot, to begin again. Some choices require courage beyond measure, like walking away from a life you’ve built because you finally realise it was never truly yours. Others demand faith — the willingness to leap when you can’t see the ground beneath you.

If life is a series of choices, then what we become is the sum of those decisions. A tapestry woven from moments of risk and restraint, of heartbreak and hope, of knowing when to fight and when to surrender. We choose, and in choosing, we create ourselves.

 

At the heart of it all, the ability to choose self-love is perhaps the most powerful decision of all. In The Love That Lasts by Sally Chiwuzie (me!), self-love is not just an act but a foundation upon which all other choices rest. The choice to honour oneself, embrace self-worth, and build a love that is #Unshakable within becomes the catalyst for every other decision that follows. When we choose self-love, we choose resilience, we choose peace, and we choose a life where every cross-road leads not just to survival but to fulfilment.

 

Perhaps destiny is cast in stone, but are we sometimes able to stir it one way or another? Is the prayer, therefore, not that we make the right choice at the cross-roads?

And perhaps, when we reach the end of this road, we will look back not with regret but with reverence. Not at a life unmarked by mistakes but at one shaped by the courage to choose.

 

Next week: D is for Destiny. Because the choices at the cross-roads are never just about where you are now — they are about where you are meant to be.

 

‘See’ you next week.

 

 

Sally Chiwuzie
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IG Handle: @unshakable.is.a.state.of.mind