Life is not an exact science. It keeps coming at you. Just when you think you may have it figured out, something happens that changes the direction of everything. We can call it the color of life.
You go to bed one night at peace with the universe because everything in your world seems to be under control, then the next day the entire world looks different. Something drastic happens to a family member, you lose your job, you learn of a major health issue, a national event occurs, your marriage falls apart.
How you see the world drives your life. How you see the world and how you handle the world depends on two elements: what truly happens and how you respond. The element on what happens is often out of your control. It’s not your fault we’re fighting a pandemic, that a car ran a stop sign and hit you, or that your son got arrested.
One of my favorite sayings is “Life is 10% what happens and 90% how you respond.” Bottom line, you don’t control the 10%, but you do control the 90%. How you handle the 90% determines your quality of life, period.
Let me give you a simpler example. You’re driving through town and another driver doesn’t see you and cuts in front of you causing you to have to hit your brakes to barely avoid an accident. There is the 10%. You’ll have an immediate response, one you don’t have time to think through. You can honk and flip the other driver off. You can say a curse word to those in the car with you. You can quietly shake your head in disbelief.
I’m not too worried about your impromptu immediate response, it should be over in a matter of seconds. What I’m concerned about is your secondary or lasting response. Does this incident ruin your day? Do you get to where you’re going and chew out others because you’re angry at what the other driver did? Your response to this unplanned event drives your world and those around you.
So, what is your response to the pandemic? What is your response to violence in the streets in large cities? What is your response to the high level political battle our nation is experiencing?
How you see these is the result of two things: where you stand and who you listen to. Before any of these events materialized and became daily news, you had been preprogrammed with your view of the world based upon your past and choices you’ve made over the years.
A black skinned big city resident will automatically see these events different than a white skinned rural farmer in the midwest. Both of these individuals come naturally upon different responses. And it’s okay. From how our parents raised us to choices we’ve made as adults, we each stand in different shoes and see the world through different glasses.
How you see these national events also depends on information you receive. Who do you listen to? Who do you trust? Who can you believe? Who do you allow to influence your view of the world?
Understand here that there has only been one perfect person who has ever lived, and he died 2000 years ago. We have imperfect people relying on reporting by imperfect people being educated by imperfect people. There are many out there who have their own agenda. Determining who to let influence you can make all the difference in your world view.
Consider here that maybe you need to turn off your television set or stop following the news so closely.
If I want to go to bed afraid every night, it would be easy for me to do so. I choose what I watch, what I read, and what I listen to. I can see videos of bad people doing bad acts daily if I want to. It can lead me into a high level of depression. But I must recognize I control the input.
We tend to like to live in a world at peace including with our community, our job, and our family. Bottom line, we are all more productive in our daily tasks when we’re not using our energy fighting one another. Some diversity in each of our lives is good and it keeps life from being monotonous, but we often find ourselves having to navigate through an out-of-control storm.
At the end of the day, you determine what you think about events around you that you can’t control. And what you determine drives everything. You also control who and what you allow to influence you.
You determine what you choose to fight and what to accept and move on. You choose what you think about. And what you think about affects everyone you deal with in your daily life.
My challenge to you is to control your personal world the best you can, the three foot circle around you. Recognize what is outside of your control and recognize what is within your control. You can’t change your past. You can’t change national events or unexpected family events, but you can control how your respond.
Think through how much external input you want and if who or what you’re listening to is healthy. There are things in this world you need to be accomplishing. If who or what you are listening to is hindering your ability to make a difference with what you have been commissioned to do, change the influence. Change the input.
Consider driving a stake in the ground and moving forward from where you are today. Don’t revisit yesterday. Learn from it, but don’t let it rob you of what you need to be doing today.
At the end of the day your world is what you make it. You choose the 90% you control. You control how you see what is occurring around you. And how you see the world is contagious to those around you.
Life is that simple. Life is that complex.
Just a thought...
Rick Kraft is a motivational speaker, a syndicated columnist, a published author, and an attorney. To submit comments, contributions, or ideas, e-mail to rkraft@kraftlawfirm.orgmailto:thekraftlawfirm@aol.com or write to P.O. Box 850, Roswell, New Mexico, 88202 - 0850.
