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Situations – Sorting what we do/not have control over

The Bottom Line – The faster we accept the things that we cannot change, the better!

  • The Situation element of the Mindset Training Model represents all external circumstances, occurrences and demands we are faced with in our daily life directly or indirectly. It is a fact of life that MOST things happening around us, to us, are NOT in our control.  
  • A critical skill to be acquired is to be able to OBSERVE our situations, SORT them by recognizing what we control and what we do not, then RESPOND accordingly (vs REACT automatically).  
  • Let’s not forget that luck and chance play a big role in stuff that happens around us. Some stuff just happens! We need to accept and move on.  

Why it matters?

The energy that we put into things that we cannot control is wasted and comes at the cost of things that we do control. Let’s work to stop the bleed of energy we give away and get nothing in return!

How I.Liv. Helps?

Inspired by the anciently wise Serenity Prayer for an easy reminder, I.Liv. introduces here a key protocol Observe/Sort/Respond that we can use to think through life situations we face.  

Here we break down the Serenity Prayer wisdom into 3 key actions:  

This can be applied to all life situation to start:

1. OBSERVE – First we must have observe the situation in NEUTRAL. What is happening, factually?

2. SORT – Assess the facts with minimal time and energy investment up-front:

  • Do I actually have ANY control over this situation?
  • Which part / area
  • What proof do I have?

3. RESPOND – Depending on the results of the sort we either

  • ACCEPT (and MOVE ON): The faster we accept the reality that we cannot change and/or move on without engaging the better off we are in the long term.
    • Acceptance is not defeat. It is not giving up and saying something is okay. Acceptance is an active choice to see reality as it is and move forward.
  • IF the thought is true AND, in our control, AND immediately relevant AND helpful, it can make sense to invest further energy. Define an action plan and execute. Load those rocks intentionally!