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Few years back I had attended this training program with 4 hour capsules of management and leadership learning.
I can’t really evaluate if it really aided to my leadership skills, but one clear lesson I learnt from one of the capsules was on how to respond, and not react, to situations in life – by Zig Ziglar.
This may be subtly related to wearing a positive attitude, but it can be explained simply and followed very easily – so I can avoid all the positivity mumbo-jumbo…
Let’s say you’re driving to work (or shopping!) and another car zooms ahead of you and does more than just this, (say almost caused an accident for you?) and irritates you to hell. You speed up, trying to catch up and at least gesture and make him realize what he almost did. You do everything to whiz past the traffic and go side by side while making gestures, without realizing you almost caused few more accidents by doing so. For all you know, you may end up with a bad mood to work (or even worse at shopping if you were headed that way)…
Who was this person that you’re trying to teach this lesson to? Have you, ever in life, met this person? Is there a chance you would meet this person again? (And, even if that happens, just pray he did not end up as the potential recruiter for a job that you would love to get.) What would you have achieved if you succeeded in making him realize his mistake on road?
Or consider a scenario where you just smile and pray for his good. OR even laugh at the foolishness that you just witnessed on road and the fact that there are so many buffoons on road that you don’t need to buy a ticket to watch them in action.
By reacting to a situation we handover the control of our destiny to someone or something else that has nothing to do with us. A car driver that you don’t even know, beyond having a glimpse for 2 seconds, cannot decide what happens to your day, and life.
Take control. Respond, and not react to situations. And do it every time you have to…!
The Eclectic Zone 