You’re In Control of Your Brain

  • 1 min read
Powerful Lessons from Two Four-Year Olds
My grandniece had a rough day at home. She’d soiled the heat vents in her room, roughed up her little sister’s toys, spoke some new and inappropriate words, all resulting in extended “time out” in her room.  At dinner in between conversation with her parents about the day, she said, “Even though you made me spend time in my room for what I did, you didn’t break my day.”
You didn’t break my day is a perfect approach up for all of us. Bad things routinely happen day in and day out, but it’s important to make sure mistakes you made or reactions from others about those mistakes don’t break your day.
My friend, Elizabeth’s grand daughter taught us both another lesson.  She was jealous that her older brother ended up with more toys from the store than she got that day. It was her brother’s birthday but she didn’t see the justification for his bigger pile compared to hers. She was a little mopey and Elizabeth asked why and she answered that she was jealous.  Elizabeth reminded her it was his birthday, and pointed out how many things she did get, and that being jealous was not a good thing to do, even using a bible reference.  The granddaughter was silent for a long time and when Elizabeth checked on her to see her attitude after explaining about the destructiveness of her jealous feelings, her granddaughter looked at her with a smile, “Mimi, I fought it off.”
That’s what you and I need to do too when people at work give us cause to be jealous, angry, or any other negative emotion, “fight it off” and “don’t let it break your day”.
Like they say, “out of the mouths of babes”….
Picture of Debra Benton

Debra Benton

D.A. (Debra) Benton has been helping great individuals and organizations get even better for over 20 years. Just as exceptional athletes rely on excellent coaching to hone their skills, Debra's clients rely on her advice to advance their careers. She focuses on what is truly important to convert what you and your organization want to be from a vision into a reality. TopCEOCoaches.com ranks her in the World's Top 10 CEO Coaches noting she is the top female. And as conference keynote speaker she is routinely rated in the top 2%. Her client list reads like a “Who's Who” of executives in companies ranging from Microsoft, McDonald's, Kraft, American Express, Merrill Lynch, United Airlines, and PricewaterhouseCoopers to the Washington Beltway and U.S.Border Patrol. *She is the author of ten award-winning and best-selling business books including The Virtual Executive and CEO Material. She has written for the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Fast Company. She has been featured in USA Today, Fortune, The New York Times, and Time; she has appeared on Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, and CBS with Diane Sawyer. To learn more Debra advising leaders, coaching, facilitating a workshop, or speaking: www.debrabenton.com

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

Harvard Business School researchers studied more than 2,000 real speed-dating conversations among 110 daters and found that people who kept turning the topic back to themselves, instead of asking even one follow-up question, were the ones routinely read as having weaker social skills.

Harvard Business School researchers studied more than 2,000 real speed-dating conversations among 110 daters and found that people who kept turning the topic back to themselves, instead of asking even one follow-up question, were the ones routinely read as having weaker social skills.

Global English Editing
Ask a woman in her sixties what she wants to do with a free Saturday, and many go quiet, not for lack of preferences, but because decades of quietly editing their own desires to match someone else’s have left them without an easy way back to what was theirs to begin with.

Ask a woman in her sixties what she wants to do with a free Saturday, and many go quiet, not for lack of preferences, but because decades of quietly editing their own desires to match someone else’s have left them without an easy way back to what was theirs to begin with.

Global English Editing
Economists studying happiness data from more than 130 countries found that well-being typically bottoms out around age 47 or 48, then rises again through later adulthood — meaning the average happiness curve often improves well beyond midlife rather than continuing to decline with age.

Economists studying happiness data from more than 130 countries found that well-being typically bottoms out around age 47 or 48, then rises again through later adulthood — meaning the average happiness curve often improves well beyond midlife rather than continuing to decline with age.

Global English Editing
Psychologists at the University of Texas sent strangers to size up 177 bedrooms and offices using nothing but the objects left behind, and the tidiest, most deliberately arranged rooms almost always turned out to belong to the most conscientious person who lived or worked there.

Psychologists at the University of Texas sent strangers to size up 177 bedrooms and offices using nothing but the objects left behind, and the tidiest, most deliberately arranged rooms almost always turned out to belong to the most conscientious person who lived or worked there.

Global English Editing
9 cities that inspired the world’s most famous novels

9 cities that inspired the world’s most famous novels

Global English Editing
Stanford researchers who tracked how people’s social circles change with age found that older adults don’t lose the ability to make friends — they simply get pickier, deliberately keeping fewer relationships that feel meaningful and letting the rest go, a shift linked to higher emotional well-being, not less

Stanford researchers who tracked how people’s social circles change with age found that older adults don’t lose the ability to make friends — they simply get pickier, deliberately keeping fewer relationships that feel meaningful and letting the rest go, a shift linked to higher emotional well-being, not less

Global English Editing
Load more
CATEGORIES
Explore