What is your Reaction

"It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters." -Epictetus

Reaction. For many, life is one reaction after another. Most of the time, those reactions are what defines who we are. It is what our children may remember about us when they are grown. It may be what we remember about our parents. To be able to control ourselves and how we react, that is the ultimate goal. Reactions in our lives can turn a moment that is not a big deal into a huge deal in an instant. Let me illustrate.

My little girl was moving into her new room. In light of this momentous occasion, she could not possibly move into the drab looking room that would be hers. She is a girly girl, and thus, she needed a girly room. Being the great father that I am, I decided that I would get this little project out of the way quickly. I made my way to Home Depot early in the morning, and picked up the few supplies that I would need. I was in a good mood on this day and was proud of myself for getting started on my project so early.

I spent plenty of time putting down a drop cloth and taping off the area that would be painted a very girly, and very bright pink. It did not take long before my wall was more pink than it was drab. It also did not take long before I had an audience of admirers. My wife was impressed that I was being so pro-active to get the painting done, my daughter was ecstatic to see pink going on the wall. It was my daughter specifically that had to stay and watch her dad in action. She kept circling the room saying, "thank you daddy for painting my room for me..."

Before I knew what happened my daughter circled too close to the work area, she tripped on the drop cloth and hit the ground, right into the pink paint.

Now would be a great time to react coolly and calmly, but instinct took over and I out of my mouth came the words firmly... "Kaylee, don't move!" That didn't work, and in a panic to get the paint off, Kaylee proceeded to smear the pink paint all over the exposed carpet. It happened so fast that the only way to stop the carnage was to grab her by her britches and lift her into the air.

The point that I want to illustrate here, is that many times we can actually make moments worse when we choose to react to situations that come upon us suddenly. If we slow down and speak slower, softer, and calmer, than every situation can turn out a little better. Everyone makes mistakes and even more often, others do not react the same as we would, but we could all use a little slower reaction time. Think about it, think about the times in your life that someone was calm and slow to react to your actions.
Maybe your actions were deserving of reactions that were more instinctual and fly off the handle, but have you had a moment or two that were pleasantly less reactive.

So, this is the challenge, don't react out of instinct. Knee jerk reactions are seldom the best course of action. Take action, but make it less of a reaction.