No Matter What Life Sends Us, We are Responsible for the Way We Respond — Robin Sharma

I read a story about a man, who felt wounded when he was informed by the barista that the chai latte he ordered from Starbucks Coffee was out of stock. I tried to imagine his face when Robin Sharma said he looked like an arrow just got through his heart before he exploded with the question, “How could you do this to me?” and walked away.

The episode reminded me of when, my friend and I worked on a supply chain proposal, for an organisation that kept requesting additional documents from us for months making us feel like the project will be awarded in favour of our company Rapid Express Logistics Limited. Unfortunately, the bad news break, that our proposal was not successful reached us. Even though I felt bad about the announcement, I was flabbergasted when my friend almost gave me the beating of my life for inviting him to participate in a venture he called ‘FRUITLESS’.

I have accepted that we do not determine or choose the things, that life throws at us. We don’t know about the kinds of customer complaints that will arise when we get to our offices. We don’t know if our clients fulfil payment promises etc.

But we can determine how we respond.

The guy could have checked out some alternative for the Chai Latte, even if he felt addicted to Starbucks

My friend should have considered the lessons we learned rather than try to beat me up.

I know that putting ourselves under control when terrible things happen could be difficult but we can keep learning to be better at our reactions with greater learnings on self-awareness.

Shalom