WWP

Lou Holtz once said, “life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.” Do you believe this? Describe a time when you feel like you could have responded a different way and produced a different outcome.

I once heard that responding and reacting to a situation can make all the difference in the world. Maybe not all the difference, but a huge difference. I believe this to be true. I forget to apply the 2-second rule before opening my mouth and end up with a huge can of worms I would have rather not opened.

Being the bitter sarcastic old woman that I am, crap just flows out of my mouth. I end up hurting someone's feelings or starting a fight. Both things I hate doing - but do so well. This happens when I'm stressed out and that means it happens 99% of the time. I'm also pretty sure this happens because I don't have the best self-esteem. I can take just about any comment and make it negative towards me. I end up taking the fight side of the fight/flight reaction - even though I am not in any danger (read: physical danger - emotionally I am a target with a huge 'kick me' sign on my back).

If I pay close attention as I usually do don't, I would see that its the source not the content of what has been said. My mom can tell me that I need a manicure and I take offense. A friend can tell me the same thing, and I get a manicure. I react to my mom and respond to my best friend. I react to my husband and respond to my neighbors.

A perfect example of this would be my current situation. My husband and I were thinking about calling off the divorce and working things out. He works in New Hampshire right now so I sent him a text asking if he remembered to call the attorney about stopping the divorce. I read the first sort-of word of the response and lost it. "Naw..." What happened after that was a huge mess. Even after I applied the two second rule and read the rest of the message "...didn't you say you got a 30 day extension?" and got even more upset.

In my sane mind I concluded that I was not only being lied to but also was not a priority. Talk about one emotionally charged screwed up individual. As it stand we are now going through with the divorce and just dating. Which also has me totally confused because I am in New Hampshire with him for the next 5 weeks. Don't ask me how to respond to that - I am clueless and prefer not to think about it.