In the space there is choice

In response to one of my LinkedIn posts this week, in the comments section I was left this beautiful quote.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” – Viktor Frankl

I used to think I was hardwired to worry about the perceptions of others, their judgements and expectations for me. It was just part of the fabric of my personality.

During my coaching certification we learnt a model for how our thoughts create the reality that we experience. How one event or situation in our lives can become another iteration. A character trait and eventually a habit of a lifetime.

I was always in my own head, overthinking and worrying in advance. I played out how I assumed it would go, built it up into a big thing or dissected the event in retrospect.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

It’s now very rare for me to overthink. There’s a space between thinking and response where I can separate out the real truth from the story.

Thoughts are not right or wrong, good or bad; they are just thoughts. We create the meaning. We attach the emotions. We take the next action and the one after that.

When you build awareness, you create that space and, in that space, you have a choice.