Buttons

"When you meet a man, you judge him by his clothes; when you leave, you judge him by his heart."

Russian Proverb

My day started off on what can only be described as the wrong foot.

When I called ahead to my first stop,my passenger's caretaker responded to me in a way that left me feeling as if I had just been attacked.

This was not the first time she and I had interacted this way which probably is why I reacted so defensively.

After ending our phone call, I called my program supervisor and gave her a bit of an ear full.

Still riled up, I reached out to one of my coaches,this one happened to be my brother, and asked for some coaching help around this incident.

After applying some coaching techniques, I was off to make my first stop.

As I drove along, I stewed a bit over how my earlier conversation had really pushed my buttons.

Self awareness is a marvelous thing.

Once I realized that I was overreacting to someone else's overreaction, I was able to calm myself down and understand what had just taken place.

Why did I feel attacked?

Why doesn't matter.

I did,and I hadn't been,and now I recognized that.

Now that I was aware of what had bubbled up inside of me, I was able to hit the reset button and move on.

We all have buttons that when pushed tend to set us off.

The great news is we also have reset buttons for just those occasions.

When my buttons get pushed I react.

I'm only human.

We all do.

Knowing how and when to hit the reset button is the important component.

I may not be able to predict or control when those set me off buttons get pushed.

I certainly can control when to hit the reset button.

And what a difference that makes!