Whiteboard Wednesday Quote - February 4

"Between stimulus and repsonse there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom." Victor Frankl (Man's Search for Meaning"

My road rage used to be BAD! I eventually figured out that it wasn’t the slow or seemingly inept, non-blinker-using driver who was upsetting me. I was upsetting myself. I was wasting my energy reacting and losing all control based on something I had no ability to control. 

We are granted with opportunities to practice with “smaller” things, the weather, the driver in front of you, the fact that you have a pimple the day before your event, so we are better able to RESPOND to the bigger things. We see the disturbing stimulus. We acknowledge the turbulent emotions that come up. We take a breath. And then we respond (yes, this response could still include honking your horn). All of this practice is really expanding the space that Victor speaks to in the quote above.

The game is about catching ourselves before our automatic reaction takes over. It's our responsibility not to let the outside control us. That's true freedom.