Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The Power of Choice


I have finally figured out why sages and gurus are always portrayed in advanced years, it’s because you really don’t start figuring out life until its coming to an end. One lesson that life has taught me is the power of personnel choice. Throughout this life we run across situations where we deicide our reaction, we can decide to be offended, out of place, or shunned. It is up to us to determine the personal impact of these situations. The best example happened on my way back home from Provo on Saturday. I had my three girls in the car and was pulling into the car pool lane to start the journey home. About 10 min later this truck comes speeding up behind me and starts flashing his lights at me, obviously he’s thinking I’m too slow to be considered a car pooler. Then he crossed the double white line to pass me and while doing so gave a not so nice gesture. Well my first response was to speed up and let him know what I thought but remembering that I decide how situations affect me I calmed down. We decide to be offended, we decide to get angry, and we decide to feel like an outcast. By letting others affect our mood we give them power over us and in the end that helps no one.

4 comments:

  1. You know road rage is a real thing!! I did notice that Utahs honk their horns alot at people. I am proud that you reacted the way you did. What a good example for your girls!

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  2. Last night President Monson spoke rather directly about anger and I've noticed that once I let the anger in it doesn't just go away but becomes near permanent fixture in the psyche..unless conscious effort is made to control it.

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  3. Good going Thor...I am the worst at getting road rage. Hopefully I can react more like you in the future. I guess when you hear your kids yelling, "Get out of the way slow poke" or "The guy should not be allowed to drive" it makes you realize that you need to just breath and not get so angry.

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  4. it's amazing how much the carpool lane is considered the "let's go 104 mph lane"... but I'm impressed - I probably wouldn't have taken the high road on that one.

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