Thoughtful Reactions

The other day I spoke about giving others the job of making us happy.

http://www.powersharing.com/m/articles/view/Whose-Job-Is-It

Our happiness does not hinge on other people or circumstances.

I also spoke about Short Cut Thinking and how easy it is for us to keep digging into the same old ruts of habitual thoughts and reactions. Instead of taking ownership of our thoughts and reactions, we tend to take the easy way out and allow our habitual patterns take charge.

While it is not easy to be in total control of our initial reactions, personal responsibility still demands that we learn the importance of taking charge of our actions and reactions.

As creatures of habit it's unlikely that our first reaction to our situations will be under total control. But we can do something about the second reaction and those thereafter. In order to avoid the downward spiral out of control, we need to recognize when we're in Short Cut Thinking mode. Let's take responsibility and make a conscious decision to act like grown ups. In other words, let's put on our big boy pants and stop throwing tantrums like a bunch of babies.

Even though our habitual thinking will tend to be our first response, the willingness to assume responsibility and seek out intentional, positive responses will bring about solutions with successful outcomes.

Tommy Wittig
(c) 2011 T-Dub-Ya Words