Your 1st reaction tends to be emotional, often driven by the ‘reptilian’ brain and defensive/protective in nature. An effective response goes to the heart of self-mastery and requires moderating that raw reaction based upon your values and objectives. Your reaction is frequently raw, fast, and often passionate, an intense spike (the ‘amygdala hijack’). Your response is where your self-awareness kicks in, where you deploy your emotional intelligence by making a deliberate, values-aligned choice.
The hard thing most people don’t like to do is pause when their emotions are driving at them to react, yet it is what the most successful of us, the most effective, have learned to do. The person who can experience a visceral reaction but choose a different, better response will go far.
Closing Quotes:
“Everything doesn’t need a response… Sometimes we must simply observe and be aware…” – Sylvester McNutt III
“The difference between responding and reacting is choice. When you are reacting, they are in control. When you respond, you are.” – Dr. Henry Cloud
“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.” – Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
“It is not even the person who insults you who hurts you, but your view that such people are hurting you… When someone irritates you, be assured that it is your own opinion which has irritated you.” – Epictetus
“A core habit of high emotional intelligence is self-management — the ability to regulate your emotions and create that vital pause between stimulus and response.” – Travis Bradberry, co-author of Emotional Intelligence 2
As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier
Note: Every effort has been made to properly source any 3rd person material. I am, however, a voracious reader. If anyone finds any unattributed material, pls let me know asap and I will be delighted to give credit where credit is due.
“All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832
