September 9, 2015 =========
☆ choice　選択
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I have just finished reading “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown. It’s a great book, and talks about the fact that most people say “I have to do X” rather than saying “I choose to do X.” When we say “have to” it takes away our power of choice. It makes it sound like we have no choice, but most of the time we *do* have a choice… of course the consequences might not be great, but we still have a choice.
Do you feel any differently about the following two sentences?
A: I have to study English tonight.
B: I choose to study English tonight.
Sentence A implies that there is someone making the person study English even though they don’t want to. Sentence B seems like the person wants to study English and they have made the choice to study English rather than watch TV or check Facebook (for example!) It’s quite a simple change in the grammar but the feeling is quite different; feeling like you have a choice is much more motivating than feeling like you have to do something, don’t you agree?
Bye,
Chris
Ps. Essentialism is also available in Japanese if you’re interested in reading it. Of course, I recommend reading the English version, but I just wanted you to know it’s in Japanese too. 🙂