Do you feel completely in control of your life, totally happy and fulfilled?
Or, like many women, are you unhappy about significant parts of your life?
The truth is you can control your circumstances and how you feel and act in response to your surroundings.
One of the key messages from Stephen R Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is that you are “response-able”. You are not like a moth flying into a candle flame because it cannot change the way it responds to the stimulus of the light from the candle.
As women, we are able to choose how you respond to your surroundings, to other people, to our circumstances. There is a gap between the stimulus from your senses and your response to that stimulus. In that gap you can make a vital choice – your response!
For many women this realization is a powerful and liberating thought that helps overcome very difficult life circumstances – loss of a job, a close relative, terminal illness…
Prisoners suffering terrible torture with no means of regaining their liberty have still found freedom in the knowledge that there is one thing that cannot be taken away from them – their freedom to choose how they respond to their circumstances.
REACTIVE PEOPLE EMPOWER THE NEGATIVE CIRCUMSTANCES IN THEIR WORLD TO CONTROL THEM
“Response-ability” goes further than that – we are responsible for exercising the choice, for being proactive.
Women who abdicate this choice, who let their physical surroundings, the opinions of others, their current circumstances control their responses are living in re-active mode.
To break out of this vicious circle, you need to subordinate your impulse to respond instinctively. You need to examine your values, what you consider to be important, before choosing your response.
BEING PROACTIVE IS NOT BEING IN DENIAL
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