You Call the Shots

Sometimes I feel as if someone or something is shooting at me, not just paint pellets, water balloons or caustic remarks, but deadly energy. I'm not talking shotgun bullets, but it's as if I'm being hit hard with bad news, judgments, negative assessments, pain.

You know this - it's "the hits just keep on coming" - but they aren't popular songs. These hits are disappointments. A bad health diagnosis. Your portfolio plummeting. Loss of a job you love. A daughter engaged to someone you despise. Your mother in the hospital and needing round-the-clock care when discharged. Rear-ending someone who never should have stopped in the first place. Flashing lights behind you when you're on an important phone call but you don't have blue tooth. The vet telling you he can't do anything to save your beloved old dog. A friend telling you she doesn't need your help with a project after all. Doing your best with a presentation at work but somehow screwing up and letting people down. Submitting what you know is a great proposal to a client, and having it rejected.

When I reach a point where everything in life seems to be coming up dreadful, moldy fungus, I take a deep breath (or two or three) and remember that I am the one who must CHOOSE to seek out and smell the roses instead of succumbing to human nature negativity. No matter how benign and silly it sounds, the choice about how to respond to any situation is always mine, and mine alone. Everything else - what others say, do and what happened in the past that can't be changed - it's all secondary, no matter how much it scolds or hurts in the moment. I hold the keys to the outcome, as it affects MY life.

In times of crisis, you - or I - call the shots. For example, what someone else does to me is has no power compared to what I do in response. For example, I can grieve the loss of my dog. That loss can paralyze me. Or I can choose to get up in the morning and make something good happen even simply by going to work.

My dear friend, David Neenan, says, "A breakdown is an opportunity to see the truth." Guess what? John 8:32 says, "Ye shall know the truth and the truth will set you free." David's message is the same as the message in The Bible. To that, I say WOO HOO! We may think the truth is harsh...but sometimes harshness is the propelling motion we need to set us free. We call the shots.

If you're in a breakdown, feel its POWER. You are in a place where you can choose how to respond! You are the one who can call the shots.

Why not call a touchdown?!