How Do You React?

You're down, kicked in the teeth by a bad event and emotionally drained. Nerves are frayed and, psychologically, you're not in a good place. Everything seems to be coming apart at the seams. You're irritable, stirred by things that normally wouldn't bother you and it's affecting relationships with those close to you.

What will you do? How will you respond, and how quickly? Do you wallow in self-pity, allowing yourself to be held down in that dark place by regret and anxiety, agonizing over a bad decision or life event? Drown your problems with alcohol?

The answer should be a resounding NO.

No matter what it is, you're not the first to go through it and you won't be the last; those words were spoken to me by Dad several decades ago and they still ring true today. To borrow a treatise issued by retired SEAL Jocko Willink: "When things are going bad, don't get bummed out, don't get startled, don't get frustrated...take that problem, take that issue and make it something good...you go forward. If you can say the word 'good', it means you're still alive, it means you're still breathing. And if you're still breathing, it means you've still got some fight left in you. So get up, dust off, reload, recalibrate, re-engage....and go out on the attack."

Learn from mistakes and setbacks and move on. Don't allow yourself to become stagnant, running in place on the treadmill of regret and your past actions. You start dealing with the issue now, not tomorrow or whenever you think you'll feel better. Assess the issue or situation, develope a plan and execute it.

And move forward.

Jocko Willink's video, entitled 'Good', can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTMDpizis8