Cause & Effect

What happened when I started to live life more at cause than effect?

What were you doing in 2013? Can you even remember that far back?

So, here’s some of the things that a quick Google search told me:

• Margaret Thatcher went to the cabinet room in the sky,
• Alex Ferguson retired,
• the European Referendum was confirmed,
• same sex marriage became legal in the UK,
• Andy Murray won Wimbledon,
• the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to Prince George,
• the UK’s largest library opened in Birmingham,
• the UK National Crime Agency was launched, and
• Abby Clancy won Strictly Come Dancing.

I had to resort to Mr Google because the fact that I was made redundant from my job of more than 21 years was the only thing I could remember from that year.

In fact, it consumed my life for quite a while.

I knew right back in July 2012 that I was leaving the company on 30th August 2013, so I had more than a year to prepare myself but actually that didn’t help at all.

Why didn’t it help?

Well, I didn’t realise it at the time, but I now know that I was predominantly responding at effect rather than cause when it came to my own life.

What do I mean by that?

Well, when we live at effect, we are letting ourselves be controlled by people, things, and events around us.

For instance, have you ever found yourself saying or thinking something like, “he makes me feel inadequate”?

Or maybe “If only my partner understood me better”?

Or even, “This weather makes me feel like crap”?

These are all indicators of living at effect.

The problem with staying at effect is that you feel like a victim, powerless and with little or no control over your destiny and that’s exactly where I was for most of 2013 and 2014.

I blamed everyone and everything apart from myself for my situation and it was only when I made the decision to start living at cause that things changed for me.

How are you currently operating at the mercy of effect?

What difference would it make to choose to change?

Caro x