Controlling Your Actions
“You cannot control others’ acts, but you can control your reaction to their acts, and that is what really counts to you…” — Napoleon Hill
There are only a few things we can truly control in our lives and one of the most important is our emotions. Jim Rohn said, “Emotions will either serve or master depending on who is in control.” “One of the early signs of sophistication is not giving way to all inclinations, but rather sending your emotions to school so they will learn how to behave.” “The greatest change to go from average to fortune is not so much an increase in knowledge, but rather, a change in our emotions about achieving our goals.” What this tells me is when we properly control our emotions, not suppress or hide them, we control our attitude and when we control our attitude, we have a much better chance of controlling our future.
I often listen to a minister by the name of Charles R. Swindoll. Many years ago he made a statement that has stuck with me. It is also something I think about at least once a week. He said, “We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced Life is 10% what happens to You, and 90% Your response…and so it is and will be with you, for you are in charge of your attitudes.”
By controlling your emotions you wind up being in control of your attitude and your attitude will help to make life pay what it is you seek to obtain from it. “Our emotions need to be as educated as our intellect. It is important to know how to feel, how to respond, and how to let life in so it can touch you,” said Jim Rohn. In their book, “Getting the Best from Yourself and Others,” Julie Davis-Colan and Lee J. Colan, lay out the path one needs to take if they are to succeed in controlling their attitude. They believe, as do I, your attitude is something you can always control. By controlling your attitude, you influence how your body responds and performs for where your thoughts and attitudes go, your body will follow.
They further believe you must choose one of two roads, either the one of the negative pessimist, or the one of the positive optimist. As the Colan’s put it in their book, “Our attitudes develop from our repeated thinking, speaking, and acting the same way over and over until it becomes a habit.” This is the same as Hypnotic Rhythm spoken of by Napoleon Hill in his book, Outwitting the Devil. They also believe one’s attitude is a boomerang to the world in that what is thrown out will come back. So, if we throw out negative pessimism, it will come back, but if we throw out positive optimism, that will also come back. Therefore, it is best to develop a positive or optimistic attitude in and toward life giving yourself the best chance of enjoying the life you desire.
The script found in the book by Colan’s for Orchestrating your attitude is as follows:
ORCHESTRATE YOUR:
Thoughts
Beliefs
Words
TO POSITIVELY INFLUENCE:
Commitments
Actions
Results
Our thoughts today influence our results tomorrow. That being said, the Colan’s believe the script plays out like this:
• Our THOUGHTS, the way we choose to interpret our world, directly influences our beliefs.
• Our BELIEFS, directly influence the words we choose to speak to others and, more importantly, to ourselves.
• Our WORDS, reflect our commitments to ourselves and others.
• Our COMMITMENTS, influence our choice of actions.
• Our ACTIONS, directly influence the RESULTS we achieve.
Best of LUCK as you
Labor Under Correct Knowledge…
Respectfully,
Rick Cox