Are you a victim? Or a creator?

Your largest customer calls and threatens to take their business elsewhere. You learn that a prized employee is leaving, taking a position with a competitor.  A major supplier has missed a critical deadline.
Your lenders announce they are reducing your credit line to your current balance and raising your interest rates.

If any of these situations happened, would you think you are having a bad day? Would you think these situations are bad? Would you think that your customer, employee, supplier, or lender had done something to you or to your organization?

In my experience, most CEOs would say, yes, as if we are victims of circumstances beyond our control, victims of other people’s thoughts and actions. Yet we are not victims. We are creators. Everything we think, say, and do creates, gives birth, gives life to who we are and what we experience in the future – for better or worse.

Stuff happens all day long.  This stuff is neither good or bad. It is what we create from it that matters. Every event is an opportunity for us to remind ourselves of who we truly are as leaders and as organizations.  Every circumstance is an opportunity to decide and create who we intend to be.

Rather than label or judge a situation as bad, we can decide who we are with regard to it and choose the experience we wish to create from it. We can start by asking ourselves:

• What can I say or do right now for the greater good? (The greater good could be the organization, the culture, the relationship, the values, the vision and mission, the long-term impact, future possibilities, the example I am setting, fulfilling my role as a leader, an ambassador, guide and mentor….)

• How can I make a difference in this moment?

• How can I be of highest and best service in this moment?

What we do and how we are being in times of difficulty can ultimately be our greatest success. For the experience we create is a declaration of who we are and who we intend to be as leaders and as organizations.

How are you being in relation to the stuff that happens in your day? What is the future you are creating?  Are you a victim? Or are you a creator?

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Mary J. Lore is an internationally recognized thought leader, executive mentor, public speaker and award-winning author.  Her company Managing Thought, LLC, helps individuals and organizations develop self-awareness and change how they think and conduct business to attain long-lasting success. She is the author of the multiple award-winning book Managing Thought: Think Differently. Think Powerfully. Achieve New Levels of Success and audio book Managing Thought: How Do Your Thoughts Rule Your World? and stars in the Live Workshop DVD. If you’d like to help Mary teach millions of people how to change their thoughts and their lives, go to www.managingthought.com/PBSPledgeSpecial . Mary serves as an expert resource for Vistage, served as a Chair from 2002 – 2010, and was a member during the 1990s when she served as a CPA, business turnaround expert, and entrepreneur.

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