7 habits.

I've been reading Seven Habits for highly effective people.

I'm through the intro and just finished habit 1: Be PROACTIVE.

It talks a lot about how responsibility is response-ability. It's your ability to choose the way you respond to things.
This is something I really need to work on. A lot of not so great things have happened to me recently, but they only happened to me because I am allowing them to happen to me.

I'm not saying I could have avoided being in the car wreck, but I am saying that I could have let it not ruin my trip. I'm ashamed that I let it ruin a good time. I'm ashamed that I let it be me that week.
"So yooou're the friend that got in the car wreck." Ya, that's me. But everything and everyone is fine. That's what I told people, but inside I wasn't fine. I wasn't letting myself be fine. And I expected people to realize I wasn't fine and do something for me to make me feel better. They didn't. Apparently I'm pretty good at acting like everything is fine. And it should have been.

Has something happened to you lately that you felt you couldn't control it - here's a tip - you can. You can control how you feel about it and be proactive in making sure the situation improves. You can't always choose the consequences of your actions, but you can be proactive in making them be better.



It also talks about expanding your circle of influence in your life. You can't fix everything, but you can widen the amount of things under your control.


God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

Also - it's not that I didn't appreciate some of the responses to the car wreck, I just pushed most of them away. I let Chad worry for 2 seconds, and was grateful that he did. I let Nick hug me. those were the best.

So try and be proactive and not just worried about other's responses or efforts to fix things. Like right now, I'm gonna be proactive. I'm gonna get dressed in time to get a pancake.