It’s All in How You React…

I always tell people that life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react. You can have the same situation and two different people will look at it in two different ways. Example, Johnny and Derek just lost a match to someone they could have beaten. Johnny said: “I lost. I played terrible. I should have beaten him. Maybe I should try golf!”

Derek, on the other hand, said: “Ok, I didn’t win, but I had my chances. If I just play more consistently next time and make less unforced errors, I KNOW I can beat him. I can’t wait to practice and apply what I learned. He’d better look out next time!”

Guess who’s going to be more successful? Derek.

You can apply this principle to other areas of life, as well. If you do poorly on an exam, instead of thinking how terribly you did, think about what you got wrong, and learn from it for next time. Likewise, if you tried to close a sale at work and weren’t successful, don’t get down on yourself, just think about what you can do differently to close the sale next time. Remember to “fail successfully.” If you continue to do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always gotten.

Homework: Next time something happens that you aren’t so happy about, take a step back and ask yourself how you can react differently, and what you can learn from it. “It’s not what’s happening to you, or around you…it’s what’s happening INSIDE you.”