Monday, September 9, 2002

Don’t take it personally

Life can sometimes be terribly painful and extremely unfair. When it is, the strongest, most positive and effective response comes from not taking it personally.

Whatever difficulties may come, when you refuse to take them personally you move powerfully beyond the limitations of your own ego. You immediately place yourself at least one level above whatever has happened, and from that vantage point your options are vastly increased.

If someone screams in your face and your reaction is to simply scream back, what have you accomplished? Yet if, instead, you can step back, take your own ego out of the picture, and look objectively at the situation, you can craft and execute a much more effective response.

How do you avoid taking things personally? By keeping in mind that although they may affect you greatly, they do not reflect who you are. Although they have happened to you, they are not an integral part of you. You always have the choice to not take them personally.

That does not mean you do not care. On the contrary, it means that you care enough to put forth your most powerful, effective response.

— Ralph Marston

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