Our November webinar focused on ideas to develop a powerful Morning Kickstart to start our days off right.
The overall theme for December is Forgiveness. After you read this blog, check out our free webinar to learn more about how Forgiveness sets us free to experience the best life has to offer.
One concept that I shared in November that is relevant this month is the idea of being FIERCE. My idea is a little different from the standard definition:
Focus
Intentional
Energy
Regarding
Controllable
Events
Everything else can cause us worry, fear, anger, and resentment, among others, and there is nothing to be done about it.
What do we have the highest level of control over?
Here’s a start:
Our Attitude – Yes, we do. Bad things happen sometimes, but our life approach is our choice.
Our Actions – We know the right things to do in our work and personal lives. Sometimes, they are difficult. We decide to act on the right things or not.
Our Aptitude – We are all created differently; however, we choose whether or not we are growing our skills and taking steps to improve.
Our Answers – When those challenging life events occur, we choose the response. When others offer negative opinions or try and hurt our feelings, how we respond is up to us.
Our Adjustments – Are we locked in and stubborn in our approach, or are we open and flexible to change if change is called for?
Then, there are some things we do not have control over yet we can influence: our outcomes, our friends and family, our community/neighborhood issues, our health, our appearance, and some aspects of our future.
What do we not control? Here’s a partial list:
Weather, interest rates, others’ opinions, others’ actions, the past, many aspects of the future, most anything on the news.
So, let’s learn to handle this stuff we don’t influence or control as best we can and avoid the stress around it all. While we cannot control these things, we can control how we react and respond to them.
In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey tackled this idea and wrote “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”
So, how does this link up with our Forgiveness theme?
We cannot control or influence the past, we can only adjust the meaning we take from it and change our attitude about it. We have the power to Forgive and move on with our lives with a lighter load.
We cannot control other peoples’ thoughts or actions regarding us; they can come up with whatever they want to! Those opinions or actions could be totally baseless or a result of their own faults and negative experiences. It also might be spot on. Let’s take it as either they are trying to help and learn what we can from it, or conclude they have no idea what they are talking about and just let it go. Someone once said, “Their opinion of me is none of my business!”
Peace and harmony are far superior to anger and resentment. That’s a fact!