“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
-Epictetus (timeless, philosophical wisdom from nearly 2,000 years ago)
To start, click my video below: Don Sardella – Dealing with Unintended Consequences 1 minute, 44 seconds
Dealing with Unintended Consequences
To all our highly valued clients and acquaintances:
In hundreds of seminars that I have facilitated in recent years, I repeatedly cite a version of this – it’s not what happens to us that is most important – it is how we respond that really makes the big difference. We can reframe.
Just as we can take a picture and put it in a different frame to create a different feeling, mood and perspective, we can also create more effective contexts for ourselves under any circumstances – the context, as some say, is decisive. It determines how we see any situation, what we do as a result of how we see and the quality of our outcomes that flow from that.
Many people these days feel like they’re living in a head-spinning whirlwind
With all the changes happening these days on so many levels in so many people’s lives, it reminds me of the 1987 book “Thriving on Chaos”, from best-selling author, Tom Peters. What are the ‘Thriving on Chaos’ maxims?
Peters uses timeless themes of applicable, specific set of tasks to achieve:
Customer Focus
Innovation
Empowering People
Leadership
Systems
Knowing what you now know, now what? What can and will you do?
Stephen R. Covey, author of the perennial best-seller “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” often spoke of ‘focusing on what we can control’:
“Instead of reacting to or worrying about conditions over which they have little or no control, proactive people focus their time and energy on things they can control…Proactive people focus their efforts on their Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about: health, children, problems at work. Reactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern – things over which they have little or no control: the national debt, terrorism, the weather. Gaining an awareness of the areas in which we expend our energies in is a giant step in becoming proactive.”
In this light:
What are your top 2-3 practices do you need to consistently focus on and execute right now, to create momentum in 2020?
Said another way, what do you first need to accomplish in 2020 that matters most or nothing else will really make a difference?
We invite you to pass this on to those for whom you think it would of value.
In the spirit of all of Springtime’s New Beginnings for Growth and Renewal,
We are gratefully yours and at your service,
Coach Don
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