It’s Not What Happens to You, It’s What You Do With What Happens to You

110. It’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do with what happens to you.

I deliberately left this Tool for last. This Tool is the sledge hammer of the box because it holds so much power and should be a constant affirmation for life. We discussed earlier that the road to success is always under construction. That to be a hammer you must be constantly willing to build. That you must always understand that things happen and what you are measured most by is your ability to make the most out of what happens. If you know anything about poker, the best players can make a winning hand out of a losing one. You can never win by folding your cards.

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react. –Charles Swindoll

Ultimately you choose. You make decisions every day that affect your life. You are in control of where you are going and you are in control of how you react to situations that occur along the way. Take control of your life by believing that you are the foreman for everything that happens on the worksite for your life. You determine what the foundation will look like. You are responsible for the timeframes in which things should be built. You are the one who separates what needs to be done now and what can be worked on later. And you determine what Tools you are going to use to best build the job, knowing the whole time that the plans will be continuously changing due to a myriad of factors in and out of your control. All the while feeling comfort in understanding that it’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do with what happens to you.

Understanding that you have the ability to make plans to react to the challenges that arise day to day and can set goals to set your efforts in the right direction. Lastly and most importantly, you have chosen to be a hammer in life and you are building the way a hammer should.