Reacting and Responding Are Not the Same Thing

[00:00:02]And part of that mindset is that we don't control events, but every single time [music] we absolutely have the opportunity to control our response. We get to choose our [music] response, and it's the quality of that response that drives the quality of our outcome. Now, there's some [music] people in our world today who are convinced that the equation should be E equals O, that events come along and they just automatically drive outcomes. And with respect [music] to those people, they're wrong. They couldn't be more wrong.

[00:00:28]They're right about this part, events come along. And events for you may be professional or personal. They may be bigger, may be [music] smaller. Some are negative, some are positive. Events aren't inherently negative, but we don't control events. We do [music] control how we respond. You get to choose. You get to decide. When that event comes along, am I going to respond, or am I going to react? React [music] and respond aren't synonyms. You don't want a doctor to say that your body is reacting to the [music] medicine. You want that doctor to say your body is responding to the medicine. We don't have the luxury to react in a [music] vacuum and think that it's not going to touch other people. And when you respond well with skill and grace, you create positive events for the people around you. On the other hand, when you react on default, [music] it creates negative events for those people around you.