Breaking through. Making the move from reaction to action.

In the early part of the sixteenth century there was a Japanese swordsman, philosopher, writer and rōnin we now more commonly know as Miyamoto Musashi. As far as strategists go, he was probably one of the best the world has ever known. He battled and dueled and never once was defeated, all because he was able to act instead of react, get into a state of objectivity as opposed to reactive subjectivity. He was a master at seeing the bigger picture and was even know to have defeated a some of his armed opponents with nothing more than a stick.

When I was a child, my parents and I decided martial arts were a good choice for me to be able to develop discipline and self control so they signed me up to Japanese swordsmanship classes and kung-fu. Whilst studying swordsmanship I was introduced to certain philosophical concepts of the Samurai. One which will always remain clear in my head is based on the teachings of Miyamoto Musashi. 

“Generally speaking, the path of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death.” — Miyamoto Musashi

It wasn’t till after an accident which left me unable to read, write or walk for a few months when I realized the true strength in Miyamoto Musashi’s teachings.

I was at a gym in Slough, England, when the cable crossover machine failed and fell on my head. The damage I had was severe, the doctors seemed to think I was always going to require assistance. Their words were,”You will never read or write again and there is a big chance you won’t be able to walk normally either”. This was now a full on battle and I had to become an extraordinary warrior of life.

I will get back to what I did to win those battles in later articles.

I’m not exactly sure of when it happened, but I began to understand the way of the warrior is the same as the way of life. It will always end, and this isn’t a bad thing, the bad thing is if you decide to live in fear of the inevitable outcome of life. The acceptance of death was then implanted in me for the rest of my life.

Believe it or not, the acceptance of death has made my life much easier, this fear no longer lives in me and I am able to enjoy and be in the moment much more than before.

After confronting the fear of death, I realized fear is the only thing I know of which gets smaller the closer you get to it. Now, the freedom from this fear has liberated me and liberated a lot of mental real-estate.

Without fear there is no reaction. This is another important lesson which taught me how to break through and live intentionally. We are only ever prompted to react if we feel fear of something which threatens us.

In order to break our reactive patterns we need to first understand we have a choice and we can take control over our emotions. For this to happen we must recognize our emotional responses and their triggers, and then we need to make sure we stop and think before we erupt into any emotional state. Once we can achieve this pause and reflection, we can then choose the reaction we want and not the one we are being pushed to feel.

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way." — Dr. Viktor Frankl

That which has our attention will determine our action. As emotions are faster than thoughts, it is easy to see how our attention can be focused on that which triggers our emotions. If you get to know your triggers, you can control your reactions by focusing your attention on slowing down and reflecting on the situation.

Doing this will change the focus of your thoughts, when you focus on your thoughts you can begin to direct them, when you are able to direct your thoughts, you will have the power to change them.

Here is the beauty of it all:

When you change your thinking, you change your beliefs. Change your beliefs you change your expectations, change your expectations and you will change your attitude, change your attitude and you change your behavior. Change your behavior and you will change your performance, and when you change your performance you change your life!

This is the power of action over reaction!

If you would like to know more about powerful tools to develop your leadership further, and develop other leaders go to my website www.coachjansen.com and sign up to my newsletter or book a free strategy session here.

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Peter Jansen