Wednesday, October 31, 2012

DALE BROWN ON THE POWER TO CHOOSE

The greatest power in the world is the power to choose.  You just don't wake up and say, "I feel like having a bad day."  The word that comes to mind always is "responsibility."  Broken down, it means "response - ability."  In other words, we have the ability to "respond" to anything in any manner we so desire.  Anytime an adverse situation arises, we have the "ability" to "respond" to those circumstances in any way that we want.  We can't let them anger us, depress us, or challenge us.

In his book, "The Art of Living," Wilferd Peterson writes about the importance of talking to yourself.  "This is an absolute important phase of your decision making process.  When someone does something to your disliking, do you say, 'I'm going to get him back, just wait'? Or does your self talk say, 'He things are going too good for me now.  There is no way that I'm letting this person disrupt my life.' More important than what others say to him is what he says to himself.  A man can talk himself up or down, into happiness or unhappiness, into failure or success, into heaven or hell."  This is, without a doubt the absolute truth.

Each and every day we are faced with challenges.  Some days the challenges are gigantic, some days the challenges are minor.  However, our ability to respond to those challenges, no matter their size, lies directly in our ability to choose how we will respond.  We have the ability to use self talk to tell ourselves what kind of attitude we would like to have to face the particular circumstance that is currently facing us.  So, with that in mind, talk to yourself and have a great day!

From "A Collection of Thoughts On Life" by Dale Brown