How are living – at cause or at effect?

These two little words can literally be life changing (if you choose to be  ‘at cause’ around them)

Let me explain…

Yes things happen to us (sadly even not-so-great things may happen) but it’s what you do next that makes the difference.

At effect, it’s the blame game. It’s everyone else’s fault, the world is out to get me, there’s nothing I can do, why did this happen to me, I’m waiting for someone to ‘save me’ – the list is endless.

In it’s simplest form:

“Sorry I’m late for this meeting, I was stuck on the tube and it was delayed” – how often has this (or a version of this) come out of your mouth? Welcome to being at effect.

At cause this statement would sound something like “Sorry I’m late, I didn’t leave enough time to get to here” The tube may have been delayed but we know how often tubes are delayed so at cause you’d leave the extra time, just in case.

Being at cause is about taking responsibility. It’s about choosing to take action to move forward. It’s about saying ‘yep, shit happened but I’m choosing not to let it rule my life, I’m choosing to do something different’.

It’s having this distinction that can keep you in check, simply asking ‘am I at cause around this?’ is giving you the language and distinction to understand if you are reacting or acting.

We can’t live at cause all the time – in some areas of our lives we can be really at cause while others areas are still at effect – but the trick is to understanding when you are at effect and how quickly you can get back to cause. It can literally be as simple as just changing a thought.

Cause and effect is not just in life, it also plays out in business.

At effect, poor sales = it’s the weather’s fault, it’s the recession, we don’t need to change, there’s nothing we can do, it’s playing to avoid losing. Lots of great excuses, no great action.

At cause, poor sales = a chance to look at how we do business differently, what do we need to change to bring our customers back, embracing and living change to get towards your vision, asking the question ‘what are we going to do about it?’, it’s playing to win

So ask yourself how cause and effect is showing up in your life and which is the most useful way to live? Which is going to get you to the life / outcome you want?

I challenge you to a week of being at cause.