"I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration; I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming." — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
How incredibly frightening and empowering that we, more than any other force, control how we perceive, feel, and understand. We wake up on the right side of the bed and woosh our day is destined to hold a grandeur the others did not possess. But what if that perception upon waking was not outwardly bestowed, but inwardly accepted. Sure the trigger could be seemingly external, outside of our control, and we are merely responding to that ineffable force or series of influencers. But is that seemingly inherent response really so inherent?...