Who will take “Response-ability”?
This Saturday morning I am, among other things, waiting.
I’m waiting for my Oncology appointment on Tuesday when I will hear the results of my first post-treatment CT Scan. It will either be all clear or show a recurrence.
I’m waiting to hear about a bid put in on buying a new house. It may be accepted, rejected or countered.
I’m also waiting for my youngest son to come over to the UK for university. In this case, he arrives in about ten days and there is no uncertainty, I’m simply keenly anticipating seeing him for the first time in over four months.
Unlike waiting on my son’s arrival, though, the first two have pretty significant binary outcomes. The first one could literally have life or death implications (my prognosis probabilities are excellent, but there is always the chance of the other outcome). The second is simply a major potential life event. It could mean getting a house to live in for many years, or else not securing it.
Interestingly, I am not at all nervous about any of this. I’ve never really been a “worrier”, added to which I have, over the years, become more and more practiced about events I have no control over. In short, I can take “response-ability“.
My first anchor to such events is “It is what it is“, acceptance of what is.
Once I know “what it is”, the second (and key) anchor is that I can always choose my response. I do not have to react, I always have the freedom to choose my response. In addition to maintaining a useful calmness, it also allows me to feel in control even of the uncontrollable, as Viktor Frankl notes in the quote in the image.