You don’t get a choice whether or not stress happens in your life. Like weather, stress happens whether you want it to or not.
But you do get a choice in how you respond to stress. You can be an “actor” or a “spectator.”
An actor is one who acts. Not necessarily acting on a stage. But executing an action. Doing something about it. Making a plan and putting it into action. An actor can be a hero. An actor can make a difference in the outcome. An actor DOES something.
A spectator observes. They experience what’s happening. They can’t change anything. A spectator doesn’t make a difference in the outcome. A spectator is just merely there. Watching.
When stress happens, if you are an actor, you take control of your destiny. While you may not be able to control what happened, you can control how it impacts your life. Will it be a stepping stone or a tragedy? Will you learn from it or will you repeat it? When you are an actor in a stressful event, you find a way to grow and go forward. You feel the pressures and you act on it.
If you are a spectator when a stressful event happens, you can be victimized. You are powerless. You watch as it unfolds around you. You are at the mercy of the event. You don’t grow from what happened. Stress holds you captive and you become a prisoner.
So what will you do?
The choice is yours: stress can happen around you or it can happen within you.
Stress can happen to you or it can happen for you.
Stress can change you for the negative or it can change you for the positive.
Stress can be a prison to your past or it can be a spring board to your future.
You can be the spectator. Or you can be the actor.
The choice is yours.