Today’s choices define tomorrow’s reality. We make choices all the time. We make poor choices for a number of reasons. I find it helpful to be reminded of a quote popularized by Steven Covey:
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Let’s double click on the part that reads, “our power to choose our response.” Where does this power come from? Why is it important?
We have been taught to push our emotions down. Well, at least I was. What I have learned is that when we do push our emotions down, they have to go somewhere. This approach is destructive and ruins lives.
I have a client who is a former addict and he explained that his drug use was a coping mechanism for his emotions. It was only after he stopped using drugs that he could learn to live with his emotions. He had to learn to lean into and acknowledge his emotions.
It is in leaning into his emotions that he found his power. It is by acknowledging his emotions that he learned how to thrive as someone living with an addiction.
It is in finding the power to choose that we find our own power.
How do you create space to make choices? Too often, we are so caught on the treadmill of life that we don’t create the space for good choices.
How might you create space in your life to choose your response?
It could be something small. It could be something hard. Whatever you do, make sure you do something that increases your power to choose. For it is there, in the space, that we are able to find our growth and our freedom.
In following this advice, I found space to write. I finished the draft of my book that I can share with my beta readers. I was only able to do this because in the middle of the pandemic I made a choice. A choice to write a book that was worth reading.
In many ways, the book I have written is about helping you make better choices.