The old saying goes "If it's to be, it's up to me." I think nowadays that it should perhaps also say "If it's to be, it's up to you too!"
No matter what life throws at you, presents gently or serves up on a platter, how you respond is something you have total control over. There is nothing in your life that you cannot change, that you cannot act upon, that you are unable to see in a different light and take some level of action about.
No matter how difficult the situation that you find yourself in, regardless of any negativity that you live with daily, and in spite of some temporary destructive environment that you may be experiencing right now, there is a better place for you and there are better opportunities. It is simply that they are just beyond your current ability to see them.
Change your way of looking just at the actual challenges that face you. Acknowledge them, of course. You must do this or you will be in denial. But don't look at them as cast in stone, as something permanent or fixed or as the only single reality there is. You have to see that these circumstances can be changed and that you can make progress beyond them. None of who you are is so fixed that you cannot create a different and better set of circumstances.
Of course there is choice and you are the one person that gets to do the choosing. There is no reason for you to settle in the place of second best or to allow bad situations to persist in damaging aspects of your life. Instead identify the ideal picture of how good you wish that thing to be, of the way that a certain outcome might change so many things for the better.
But the first requirement is that you recognise what it is that you have and from this be firm about what you do not want, about what is dysfunctional or that does not serve you in any positive way. Be clear that you are willing to let these non-beneficial things and circumstances go, let them fall away from you.
We could be talking of a clunker of a car, of a distressing home situation, of a malfunctioning and distorted relationship, of a job or workplace where you experience inappropriate behavior or simple bad practice. You may want to break free from a crippling cycle of debt or from a relationship where there is neither love nor scope for change. It might be that you are in a place of personal despair and lack of any hope.
Begin to make a shift in your situation by stating clearly that you no longer want to put up with any of the things that you have considered and which you have written down on a list. By getting to a state of clarity about the things that you do not want you are at the same time creating more space for the right things, the right people and the right circumstances to come into your life.
So start with identifying what you don't want.
Now move quickly and clearly into what you do want. Enjoy describing the detail of what you want, and go to work on the process of asking the world to provide you with these.
The Universe likes a person to ask clearly for what they want as it then has clear instructions on what to do and will always work at providing you with what you ask for. If you make your list and do the asking and what turns up seems at odds with what you asked for, rather than blame the Universe for giving you the wrong stuff, first check what you asked for. So often people will think they asked for X when actually they asked for Y and a bit of something else or for Y with a little distortion. When you get something that seems different you should always check the original list you were working from!
Do those things that will take you closer to your goal of creating, attracting and then receiving the life that you wish to experience.
Remember that making choices is about deciding from a set of those things you do or do not want, from a choice between what calls your attention or what propels you in a different direction and towards something else.
Making choices is also about coming up with some detail so that you are not just guessing for things.
Sometimes you will need to expend energy in work or labor towards a goal. At other times the goods will be delivered to you almost instantaneous to your wish for their existence.
In each case the deciding factor is the detail that you put into your request and the choices that you make from the options available to you. The biggest mistake would be to think that your choices are limited when in fact they are abundant.
When things are going the way you want, remember that you are in control. And do not forget, that when things are not going the way you want them to, that you are also in control!