Being Reactive

Being reactive has an impact you, me and everyone. 

The definition of reacting is to respond or behave in a particular way in response to something. When our goal is to grow but we continue to react in the same manner as we always have, we can't expect new results. 

Einstein said this brilliantly with his definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. 

The reason why we react is because our emotions trigger a specific response in certain scenarios.

If we deconstruct the word down to its original roots, the word "re" comes from 17th-century latin meaning intensive force or reversal. And this is exactly what happens. When we react our emotions force a response that we don't have conscious control over. 

Sometimes we may not even want to react that way, but we do because it's our default pattern. 

I've recently been spending more time becoming aware of how I react in certain situations, with certain people and with myself. 

Identifying these automatic patterns is essential to allowing ourselves to grow.

By observing my thought patterns and being in the moment I am able to start choosing new ways of responding to situations. I've been playing with this a fair bit with my Dad in Aruba as I find we have the exact same conversations again and again.

It's easy after years of repeating these to fall into the same automatic response. By choosing not to do that I'm finding we're able to have new conversations and move past our hold-ups. 

I recorded this podcast to talk more about this point. Check out the episode and do let me know what you think.

 

And if you liked this episode tell me on Twitter @filipsierpinski or facebook! I love hearing from you :)

Mentioned in Podcast

• Giordana Toccacelli episode
• Steve Jobs Quote - you can find my write-up about this quote here
• Being Selective vs. Selecting Anything episode