Life's Overwhelming C's

Here's a presentation I've given to a number of different groups. The C's model is also an excellent guide for Coaching. Let me know what you think.

There are 3 C's that we need to be aware of that can strongly influence us on a daily basis. So much so that we can not directly have control over them. However, there is a single "C" that can rectify the difficulties of the 3C's. I'm going to present to you a brief overview of them here. Firstly you need to know what the 3C's are and then the "C" that brings a powerful solution, so here goes...

Beyond Our Control - 3C's

Circumstances:

You've likely had a raft of circumstances float in and out of your life haven't you? Circumstances that were out of your control. Circumstances that were unexpected, unplanned for and a complete interruption. Where they come from I'm not sure. Yet come they do. At anytime and in many different ways. If we could plan for them then that's bonus. Unfortunately we more often than not, can not plan for those set of circumstances that can rock our boat or even sink it!

Life throws circumstances at us on a daily basis, where we must either move with them or against them. For some, these circumstances can seem so very unfair and for others it can seem that a set of circumstances strung together resulted in a freak stroke of good or bad luck. That if anyone of the sequences of circumstances had been different the result would have been radically different also.

How we face those difficult times will often define us and require us to draw on our internal strength to ride it out and bounce back from the setbacks that circumstances can bring into our lives. More often than not, we have no direct power of the circumstances that force themselves into our lives.

Change:

If it's one thing you can count on - it's change. Everything changes. Nothing stays still. We are constantly changing either in part or whole. Change is as certain to happen to us as we can be certain that the sun will rise and set in the evening. Change is a universal law that we must learn to navigate through and work with. Change happens at work. Change happens at home and change happens to each of us at a cellular level. Change is certain, it is on its way to you now. You can be assured that change will happen and when it does, how well, will you be able to move with it? You're ability to work with, through and even create change will be a defining point in your life. Change in relationships, character, organisations, leadership is always a certainty. What is not certain is how well you will manage yourself as change happens.

More often than not, we have no direct power over the changes that happen in our lives.

Chaos:

What do you get when you have a day or week of sudden circumstances and changes come into your life? Where all is happening to you and you are on the end of multiple circumstances and changes, happening to you. Being overwhelmed with "unexpected everythings" is not a nice place to be. At some stage we become seriously overwhelmed with it all. It gets to be too much and chaos is the result!

A life of chaos is not good! Yet sadly some do live lives that are chaotic. Chaos is an accumulation of circumstances and changes each merging together to create an overwhelm. Making business or home, a living hell. We may not have direct power over circumstances and change that happen to us and the resulting chaos that enters our lives, yet there is a solution.

Control Comes Through Choice

Choice: Circumstances, change and chaos are more often than not, beyond our control. They are outside of our boundary of personal control and at best can possibly be influenced, yet not entirely controlled. Those "unexpected anythings" can occur at anytime. They can happen while driving down the road or crossing a busy intersection. While out shopping in your local Mall or while speaking on the phone. It can happen anytime and anywhere. That's one of life's certainties, that circumstance, change and chaos will happen to you, if they have not already.

So how do we rise above these universal certainties? How do we ride them out or even turn them to our advantage?

The answer is the power of personal choice.

Although we can not determine what will happen to us at any given time we can choose how we will respond to it. We have a personal power that allows us to choose how we will think, feel, behave or convey to others whether the 3C's will or will not affect you. We can not determine the "effect" the 3C's will have on us, the good-news is, we can definitely choose whether they have an "affect" on us.

Decision making is at the heart of making excellent choices in how to respond to the 3C's. We have more choice now than at any other time in our planets history. Internally we equally have an unlimited array of choices we can make on how to respond to all the variations of the 3C's, that life can throw at us.

Some of the choices that we can make when faced with 1 or more of the 3C's can be summarised as being:

• "No matter what life offers me, I have made the choice that I will always be ok."


• "I own me and therefore I own my ability to choose how I respond".


• "I choose to have faith in my ability to rise above any setback that comes into my life"

These 3 sentence stems are an insight into what lays at the very heart of those who successfully face the 3C's and overcome them. Exercise your ability to choose your responses to the 3C's. Practice your powers of personal choice when dealing with small setbacks brought into your life by circumstance, change or chaos. Learn to make effective choices through small situations you face, and in doing so, overtime, it will become a habit that will serve you well when one or more for the 3C's come to visit.

Wishing you the very best in applying your powers of choice to the 3C's.

You can email me at: colin@ignition.org.nz