Change Your Response

Change your response. 

I pretty much do everything quickly. I walk quickly, I talk quickly, and in true elementary school teacher fashion I even eat quickly. I've been this way my entire life, and when my daughter was young I had to make a conscious effort not to rush her. 

Although, doing things quickly might sound productive, what it does results in is responding too quickly. If you push the right buttons you probably will find me lashing out in a fierce attempt to defend myself. 

Along with my quick actions, I seem to have a mind that races from one thought to the next. I've often thought that if given the task of debating any topic, I pretty much could without too much preparation. Now this is not necessarily a good thing. 

As a newlywed I found that whenever my husband did A, I always did B, and that always resulted negatively. It seemed that I had no real control over my response. More times than not I overreacted, and allowed a situation to escalate, when by just changing my response it probably would have blown over. 

I'm stubborn, and opinionated, and apparently a slow learner because it took many years of marriage to figure out that instead of automatically responding with B, I could choose C-Z instead. I guess they call this the wisdom of the ages, and after thirty-two years of marriage, although not perfect, my responses are usually more measured. 

Simply by changing how you CHOOSE to respond to someone or a situation can make a huge difference in your life. Often times I use physical cues, like crossing my fingers to remind me not to respond immediately. I also use the acronym W.A.I.T. (Why am I talking?) as a reminder to slow down, and really consider what I am saying before blurting out something that might be counter-productive to understanding. 

I found also that during the election cycle I was quick to respond on social media. This never worked out well, and although I do believe in standing up for your beliefs, battling it out on Face Book might not be the best decision if you want to retain friendships. Today I'm a lot more discriminating about how I respond, and probably have more friends!

"Our reaction to a situation literally has the power to change the situation itself."

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