Transition Person I: Don't Continue the Rusted Chain

No matter what has happened, is happening, or will happen, there is a space between those things and our responses to them. ­– Stephen R. Covey

 It is easy – much easier – to react to things rather than respond to them. We are taught in physics that action and reaction are equal and opposite and so we internalize that and give back what has been given to us.

In the same way it is easier to continue the chain of what we see around us rather than break it. In our desire not to be the weak link we become blinded to the fact that the chain we are protecting is rusted. A rusted chain is the family in which mummy got pregnant out of wedlock, first daughter, second daughter and third daughter let's it "happen" to them. It is a business in which boss is verbally abusive, manager verbally abusive, supervisors verbally abusive. It is the home in which father beats mummy, sons beat girlfriends.

We all have had (or still have) our share of rusted chains. The easy thing to do is ensure the rusted chain doesn’t break with you. For example, my Dad gave himself to alcohol for much of his young life and I found myself with an alcohol bottle every evening in my early youth. Not only that, I initiated my younger brother! I had to get to the point where I spoke sense to myself to not continue the habit I so hated in lovely daddy.

It is only when you decide not to continue the rusted chain that you become a transition person. A transition person, in the words of Stephen R. Covey, is “one who stops unworthy tendencies from being passed on from prior generations to those that follow.”

{Order for my new book on Amazon.com Do it Like Kids, click here}

          The transition person is a chain breaker. He doesn’t sit back and allow life happen to him but makes life happen. He doesn’t react to stimulus, he responds to it. He recognizes that he has the power to determine how his life turns out and decides daily to take only the steps that ensure the rusted chain breaks.

Transition persons are priceless to the future. They are the hope we have for a better tomorrow. They are the reasons we will not have better yesterdays. They set a different example for the next generation to emulate. Do you want to be a transition person? Sure you do! Follow my next article as it shows how to be one.