Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: You Have the Power to Choose
Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. With that in mind, I want to take some time to do just that – share examples of circumstances and stories experienced in everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those examples, and it teaches us that although sometimes things don’t go according to your plan, you have the power to choose how you respond.
I had been up late working, and I was really tired and went to bed expecting a good night sleep. A good night of sleep was not to be had, however, when, at 4:15 in the morning, my granddaughter came into the room to wake me up. For reasons known only to her, she had decided it was time to get up and play, and she needed someone to play with her. I was the lucky winner. So, I rolled out of bed and joined her on the floor in the living room to play while everyone else slept.
The restful sleep that I was hoping for when I went to bed the night before did not go according to plan. However, it was still up to me to choose how I responded and what I did next. My granddaughter did not have bad intentions when she came to wake me up. She had no idea that I had gone to bed so late, and her purpose was not to make me miserable. She was awake and enjoying her morning, and simply wanted to play. Sure, I was internally irritated about being woken up when I was so tired, but I also had the choice of how I was going to react. The circumstances of my morning were different than what I had anticipated, but I got to choose what to make of it.
That often happens in our work and in our lives. We have everything planned, and all of our resources are ready based on what we are anticipating will happen next. But then something doesn’t go the way it is supposed to, and we have to respond on the fly. We have to change our plans, find other resources, do things differently, or even discard the original plans altogether. Many times, we have no control over these unexpected happenings. We do, however, have control over how we choose to respond and the attitude with which we take our next steps. How we react is completely up to us.
That is the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, from this tiring experience of being woken up with insufficient rest by a grandchild who simply wanted the joy of playing with her grandfather. It was unplanned, unexpected, and had the potential to be frustrating, but I got to decide how I responded. You see, we often can’t control what happens around us, but we can control what happens within us. We can choose to see the unexpected circumstances as a valuable opportunity, refuse to be defeated and discouraged, and respond with a positive attitude, or we can spiral down a path of bad reactions. Things don’t always go according to plan, but when they don’t, we do have the power to choose how we respond.
