Easing

Sometimes we get annoyed at people and situations merely because they are not where they want them to be.

We might have spotted potential in someone, or we might just have grown sensitive to a behaviour that repeats over time.

We might have envisioned a better world, or we might just have had enough of a culture where we feel we don’t fit.

Easing into what is will give us and the others the opportunity to change, to grow closer, to eventually meet in a place where we are better and they are better.

That’s true improvement.

Every day

Motivation, inspiration, and creativity are resistance in disguise.

If you wait to be motivated to start going, you won’t get far.

If you wait for inspiration to struck before doing meaningful work, you’ll soon be out of a job.

If creativity is what you seek when sitting down to write, the page will stay empty most of the time.

There is nothing sudden in people’s achievements, no overnight success will surprise you.

Go do what you are supposed to. Every day.

The right muscles

Once you’ve identified your triggers, the point is not to stay away from them or drown in the anticipation of the pain they will expose you to. The point is to find ways to manage them and gradually master them.

If you are comfortable around somebody you can’t avoid, take control of your encounters and suggest whatever makes you feel at ease.

If presenting in front of a vast audience is too much for you, volunteer every time there is a small presentation to give.

If you are afraid your boss might ask questions about a delicate issue, make sure you will be the first to raise the topic, at a time convenient for you, with the words you have chosen and rehearsed.

You can prepare for almost everything, as long as you choose to train the right muscles.

Little future

Remember to balance your ability to get things your way with the fact that, on the other side, there is somebody who has just lost the trust in the relationship and their capacity.

You can push, you can order, you can yell, you can bypass, you can threaten, you can boss around. And you’ll eventually make it happen exactly how you wanted it to be.

There’s little future after that though.

The response

We are all subject to similar stimuli. Stress, frustration, love, anger, disappointment, desire, need, anticipation, exhaustion, fear, failure, envy.

Two things matter.

  1. There are different responses.
  2. We are not the stimuli, we are the response.

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

Viktor E. Frankl