As the tens of thousands of graduates of Klemmer’s leadership training programs have said time and again, “I have the power to choose.
For many, this life lesson wasn’t easy to learn. But as they proceeded through Klemmer’s Personal Mastery and other trainings, it became abundantly clear that they had far more scope to choose how to frame their thinking, and thus how to live their lives, than they had ever imagined. And that has made all the difference, opening up new professional and personal opportunities they’d never before thought possible.
If you can’t choose your circumstances, choose your attitude
We all have the power to choose: when and how we show up, how we respond to a situation, where we invest our energy, and how we shape our lives. It’s ultimately about choosing the path of centeredness, happiness, and joy.
As numerous philosophers and human psychology experts have pointed out, we may not always be able to control our circumstances, but we can control how we respond to them.
Just repeating to yourself, “I have a choice” during stressful moments can help keep you grounded in that fact. No matter how small it may seem, there is always scope for you to decide how you will gather your resources to reestablish yourself on firmer ground. The first step is making the decision to think differently, see your life trajectory differently, and behave differently.
That change of perspective is really just an acceptance of the abundance around you. Simply noticing that fact can be life-changing. With a fresh way of looking at the world and your own circumstances, you can finally begin to see the possibilities for choice and change.
Draw on the positives in your own history
If you reflect on the times you have handled setbacks and crises well in the past, you’ll realize that you have the power to do something similar now. If you mentally review previous experiences of managing and growing your money successfully, you’ll note that there may be new strategies for doing that now. If you can remember the pride you felt when you led your team through a challenging time, there’s no reason why you can’t do it again.
Don’t let negative experiences freeze you
It is often hard to break through a negative image of yourself that has coalesced over the decades. When it’s based on your less-than-perfect moments, and on the hurtful, demeaning remarks of others, this self-image may have become so ingrained that you just see it as “who I am.” We humans also have an amazing capacity to justify limitations in our thinking by telling ourselves, “That’s just the way things are.”
The problem here is, that when you’re captive to a negative view of your own abilities and potential, you automatically look for confirmation for this belief from your never-ending collection of negatives. And that freezes you right in your tracks.
Klemmer’s trainings are designed to help you break free of those distorted “sunglasses,” or the faulty belief systems that are holding you back. You’ll learn to confront hard truths with confidence and emerge with a mental and emotional clean slate. You’ll be ready to move forward and write a newer, stronger—and more accurate—story about who you really are.
Every moment is a choice
You might look at a friend or colleague and think, “This person was so lucky!” Some people do indeed look as if they have it all. But if you take a 360-degree view of their lives, you’ll realize that they were good at taking advantage of whatever opportunities they could find, no matter how seemingly insignificant.
Regardless of the circumstances around them, there are people who can size up and seize the best options available to them in the moment. If you can learn to do this too, it’s likely that you’ll be able to build one small success on top of another, always using your power of choice to pick the best option in front of you. Never doubt that those small successes can combine over time and take you exactly where you need and want to go.
During some of history’s darkest moments, in times of war and crisis, people have been trapped in the direst of circumstances. They couldn’t control where they were or what was done to them, but they could control their attitude, their perspective, their sense of where the moral compass pointed. That often made all the difference, giving them inspiration to keep living, courage to help others, and strategies for endurance and survival.
In these darkest times, their determination to hold onto their power of choice became the difference between life and death.
Remember that, every day, you also have the ability to exercise your power of choice. No matter what challenges or crises confront you, you have the ability to turn things around by taking your power of choice and change into your own hands. See Also: Essential Safety Tips for Rideshare Passengers