Respond With Ability - 3 Ways to Stop Reacting and Start Responding

There is a magnificent force out in the world today, and it is a force which most people do not even realize is at work. Each day hundreds and thousands of people make a choice to not let this force work in their favor, instead choosing a more difficult path. It is invisible, intangible, and mysterious, and yet it is one of the most powerful things this world has ever produced, the force that I am talking about is responsibility. Responsibility is a magic force that can and will change your life, it is the cause that leads to the effect that you desire. Being responsible is a matter of thought and power, it is a positive thing, as a matter of fact it is EVERYTHING! There are two parts to this great word, the first is "respons" which is a form of the English word response which comes from the Latin "responsum" which is defined as "answer". The second half is "ibility" which is a variant of the word "ability" which comes from the Latin "habilitas" meaning "aptitude" or "easy to manage". Putting these two words together creates responsibility which when broken down to its roots literally means answer with aptitude, or respond with ability. The word has been shuffled around in the English language to mean something entirely different, dare I say it has been twisted to mean something that gives it such a negative connotation that people try and shy away from it, when you hear the word responsibility it generally means "fulfilling your obligations" which makes everybody cringe. But that is not what the word means, as we have seen above responsibility means that you respond to the situations around you with the aptitude, or ability that you currently have. Which in it's very essence just means to own your response. Own your actions. This is the part that makes such a huge difference in your life, own your actions. Being responsible does not mean that we walk around feeling weighed down by the obligations that we have encountered in life, it means that we accept the situation for what it is and we choose to respond rather than react to the situation. In Junior High science we learn that animals react in accordance with their instincts. I believe as humans we often do this as well, we react to stimulus rather than respond to it, you see reaction means simply to do again. And this is what we do, we react to a stimulus again and again and again until we feel like we have no control over the response. But this is where we differ from the majority of our animal friends, we in fact DO have control over our response, and that we can always make a better choice, rather than simply reacting to the world around us. Difficult things happen, and there sometimes is no explanation, but, we always have the choice as to whether we will give a positive or a negative response. Here are 3 quick ways to change from reacting to responding. 1. Think about it - whatever it is you are dealing with think about it start to finish, think about it from your point of view, think about it from the other person's point of view. Think about it from an outside observer's point of view. How does it appear now? Does it look different? 2. List 4 ways you could respond - you can do this very quickly in your head on the spur of the moment, or write it out on paper if you have the time, the purpose of this is to show yourself that you can make a choice 3. Choose the response that brings the most peace to you - This may be a topic for another time, but peace is always better than anguish, always. So make the peaceful choice. ON a quick note, the peaceful choice never involves revenge, and always involves forgiveness. Three simple things, three steps to choosing your own response. Try it, and you will start to feel a power that you may have never felt before, and that is the power of self-responsibility. You have the ability to respond to any situation in a way that will bring you lasting peace and happiness, and that is what life is all about.