�Who Says You Can�t Teach an Old Dog a New Trick or Two�

A woman in a supermarket is following a grandfather and his poorly behaved young grandson.  It’s obvious to her that he has his hands full with the child screaming for whatever takes his interest as they walk through the aisles.

Meanwhile, the grandfather is working his way around the store, saying in a controlled voice, “easy, William, we won’t be long, take it easy boy.”

Another outburst and she hears the man calmly say, “Its okay, William, just a couple more minutes and we’ll be out of here.  Hang in there, boy.”

At the checkout, the little boy is throwing items out of the cart, and the grandfather again states in a controlled voice, “William, William, relax buddy, no need to get upset. We’ll be home in five minutes; stay cool, William.”

As the woman goes outside she sees the grandfather loading his groceries and the boy into a car.  She approaches and says to the elderly gentleman, “it’s none of my business, but you were amazing in there. I don’t know how you did it. That whole time, you kept your composure and no matter how loud and disruptive your grandson got, you stated calm and kept saying things would be okay. William is very lucky to have you as his grandpa.”

“Thanks, lady,” said the grandfather, “but I’m William – his name is Steve.

Possibly the greatest gift we can give to our self is the understanding that we control our emotions and choose our emotional responses.

For nearly half a century I believed that it was the actions of others that upset me, that it was the behavior of others that was creating the majority of the problems in my life. For the most part I had given up control – I lived in a world filled with BLAME and I was victim to the will and needs of others.

Today for the most part (yes the most part but not always – sucks to be human) I choose to control my life and how I respond to the circumstances as they unfold around me, keeping in mind that when I blame others in any given situation I am giving up control and the opportunity to improve the situation and hopefully not make things worse.

“Some favorite expressions of small children:

It’s not my fault. . . They made me do it. . . I forgot.

Some favorite expressions of adults:

It’s not my job. . . No one told me. . . It couldn’t be helped.

True freedom begins and ends with personal accountability.”

Dan Zadra