The Choices we Make

The Choices we Make in life, determine our success in life, and reveal our character. Make intelligent choices!

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ABOUT

Welcome to The Choices We Make, a home for regular people who struggle to keep moving forward, despite the pressures of the world that keep pushing them back. I am Pat Dowling. I am a dad, husband, employee, care giver, cook, chauffer. I have been living since 1963, but since 2008 I have been struggling to make the right choices, in order to survive. Although, I have not always made the right choices, I continue moving forward – and my life is ahead of me. The purpose of The Choices we Make is to share provide examples and information to others, so that they can make the best choices for themselves, and so that they can live a happy and rewarding life. To provide varied and relevant content, I focus on issues that I and my family have been confronted with, the struggles that we fought ourselves and with others, and the results of our struggles. I focus in a areas that affect many people, like: Financial Stress, Abandonment, Liver Disease and Alcoholism. All of the writing on the Choices site is presented freely with no outside advertising. If you’d like to support the project, pass it on to someone who might be interested. You can follow along through updates in your inbox, or just by checking in here at the site every day. _________________________________________________________________________________

WHAT YOU WILL FIND HERE

I write about life’s experiences, and how those experiences affect the rest of our lives, through the choices that we make. Of the many choices we make, the most typical are:

  • To Do Nothing
  • To Go Along
  • To Wait and See
  • To Act without Thinking
  • To Act in Accordance to a Life Plan

The Choices we Make is all about understanding our Choices, and Choosing the best Choice, based upon our plan. The life experience I write about experiences that I have first hand. While all the information provided may not be directly from me, the experiences I have are where my passion is, and where I can provide the best positive experience for others to learn from. The experiences include: Helping my wife deal with her liver disease and her subsequent transplant, helping my family deal with my its abandonment by mom, helping my family deal with the financial crisis that life has thrown at us, and helping my family deal with the heartache of alcoholism. __________________________________________________________________________

PHILOSOPHY

Early in my life of making choices (the period beginning 2008) I was very embarrassed and ashamed of what was happing to me and my family. I tried to hide this all from anyone outside of my family, including my own parents, brothers and sisters. I succeeded at this very well for a long time. I hid any personal problems that we were facing, and tried to create the appearance of a happy and successful family. And I succeeded very well for a while. So well, that my oldest daughter struggled with her own life and moved out of town, and my third eldest daughter moved out of town for college, so that she did not have to play mom anymore. Realizing something was wrong, I began telling others what was going on…. And to my surprise, the world did not end. In fact, I felt better, my community reached out to help, and things started to get better. At least the choices I made at this time, started to provide a positive environment for me and my family. And in The Choices we Make, the philosophy is to be open, honest, upfront and positive, so that others can start making the right choices. _____________________________________________________________________

BIO (don’t you hate writing in the 3rd person)

Pat Dowling was born in 1963, the product of a Catholic middle class family. The oldest of 8 children, he was first going to grade school, high school and college, but not first moving out. Pat graduated from Miami University in Oxford Ohio, and moved to Cincinnati, OH. Since 1985 Pat has worked for The Fifth Third Bank (as an Operations Officer), The David J Joseph Company (as Business Manager) and Cincom Systems, Inc. (where he started in sales and rose to Senior Management). He has also dabbled in the entrepreneur world for a few years.

pdowling speaking

Ask Pat to speak at your event

Pat is married with 9 children, and is proud to have coached most of them in Soccer, Lacrosse, Basketball, Football and Volleyball. Pat’s children range from their 30’s to teens. With 4 out of college, 2 in college, 1 in high school, and 2 in elementary school, time has not stopped. _________________________________________________________________________

SPEAKING

As could be expected, once the cat is out of the proverbial bag, you cant shut it up. Surprising blunt and refreshingly honest, I love telling my story and that of others who have struggled through life and have chosen to make positive decisions for themselves. If you, your group or association area looking for a speaker, willing to have the hard conversations about Abandonment, Alcoholism, Financial Distress, or Liver Disease and Transplant, Pat is the right person.

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