The Ultimate Response

“Your initial reaction, doesn’t have to be your ultimate response.”

Today I want to unpack that phrase and just be straightforward with this.

When things happen in life, big or small, think about what your first reaction is. Someone cuts you off in traffic, are you immediately starting to build up road rage?

You fail at doing something you’ve been trying hard at, do you quit because you’re not getting it the first few times? Or maybe in traffic you don’t get upset or maybe you have great resilience through failure, but either way, think about areas of your life that need better responses.

Got them in mind? The weakest thing to tell yourself when you react poorly in a situation is, “Well that’s just the way I am!!” That is a defeated approach and has you playing the victim. I’ll give you a personal example: By nature, I am not a detailed oriented person, and I lose focus easily. Instead of saying “Oh I’m just not organized and easily distracted” I have worked hard daily to do things that require me to sharpen my focus over time and to also learn that details do really matter.

The power comes when you understand you always have a choice in your “ultimate response” even if your “initial reaction” is a poor one. 

Verses to consider: 

Your next steps:

Stop playing the victim and defining your self by your bad reactions in certain situations.

Do you struggle to save money? Don’t say “Oh I’m just a spender” Instead, start keeping a budget of all of your money. Instead of saying, “Oh I’m not an avid reader.” Buy a book that is 100 pages and read a few pages a day to finish it in a month. Don’t say, “Oh I’m not a gym type of person.” But instead go for a 30 minute walk after dinner every night and drink lots of water.

What I’m saying is just because you at first respond in a bad way, you always have the power to overcome it by choosing to build the habit of responding in a good way.

Then over time, those choices turn into habit, then turn into lifestyle. Then, your “ultimate response” will actually transform into your “initial reaction.”

Much love,

Lowery