Victim or Owner…. Your Choice!
As we all watch the daily onslaught of “news” these days I can’t help but think back to the fundamentals of all the great coaches that I have had over the many years, and still do today.
With every event, every action, every challenge is thrown our way, we as thinking beings, have a choice of how we react or view our perspective. It can be broken down in many ways, and the one that I appreciate more than any is the choice between being a victim or an owner.
A victim views every bump in the road as a car swallowing pothole. Now sometimes, in fact, that might be the reality. I suggest you swerve! But in the course of a normal day when we get thrown a really big curve, a victim, at that moment, will view that issue as a personally centered assault on their complete humanity. Not totally all that simple, but for this short piece that is as far as I will take it. Fear sets in, we freeze rather than act, and we lose perspective with a sole focus on the “issue in front of us.
An owner, however, realizes that the strike that they were just thrown, in fact, shows them what to look for next and establishes what actions they can take to counter any of the negatives that might have arisen otherwise. There is a ton of great writing on the concept of hard-nosed optimism (I suggest Hard Optimism by Price Pritchett) that will help you frame a response to these challenges. Again, to keep this blog short and applicable I will leave the details up for your further exploration.
My ask of you this week is to take ownership of just one challenge that you have on your plate today that is causing you to “study” it and that creates tension in your thinking and your “insides”. Take ownership, form a response, move it to ACTION! That simple move will empower you in more ways than you might expect!
You’ve got this.. you are an OWNER!
Ok, Let’s Roll!
-Mitch