Wednesday, November 26, 2008

A Little Lightbulb Went Off

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.

I've heard that expression before but never really thought much about it. I just thought that it sounded like one of those motivational sayings that should be under a picture of mountains or something. Recently, however, I heard the saying again but this time it was just a few days before what I was anticipating to be a trying week and it finally occurred to me how much it makes sense.

Think about it: We may not have control over everything that happens to us, but we do control our own reaction. Why waste the energy getting upset about something you have no control over. Get up and do something about it.

That, my friends, is power.

That phrase became my mantra leading up to and during what could have been a Hellish week and I really think it helped.

I leave you with a motivational poster I got for my man once upon a time (he likes Wolverine):


PERSEVERANCE
"Some people want it to happen. Some people wish it to happen. Others tear down the walls of resistance and make it happen."

4 comments:

Amanda Conger said...

I can't agree more. I just finished reading Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and one thing he was talking about was that we have a circle of worry and a circle of control and a circle of influence. Our circle of control sits inside our circle of influence. (Ie: we can directly control some things, and influence even more). But the circle of worry is unrelated to those two.

Most people, their circle of worry is bigger than their circle of control--they feel helpless and powerless. The key is to not worry about what you can't control. Which doesn't mean you can't plan and prepare for it, but the thought that there might be a tornado next week shouldn't be something you fret about. You should be fretting (and better yet, doing something about) things you can control--your messy, your skills in a given area--or at least influence.

It struck a cord with we because before people always thought it was cold when I would say "I don't care, I can't control that." Now I know that it's not being cold, it's being pragmatic.

Anyways, yes, novel to say I totally agree with you!

AJ said...

Words to live by! I've been trying to adopt this attitude for the past few months. I stress way too much about things I can't control, and get annoyed over things I should shrug off. It's not healthy!

Karla said...

Well said and a GREAT reminder:)

Cat (darklingwoods) said...

I think the motivational quoute is much more effective with Wolverine than mountains ;)

I agree completely thanks for the reminder!