#453 - Monday Motivation: "Between stimulus and response there is a space..." - Viktor Frankl
Welcome to another short but empowering episode of Monday Motivation, giving you a dose of inspiration as you head into your week...
Today, we explore Viktor Frankl’s powerful reminder that between what happens to us and how we respond, there is a space where our power, growth and freedom live:
'Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.'
Three key takeaways:
- Why the pause between stimulus and response is one of the most powerful tools you have in everyday life
- How to respond with greater intention when life feels overwhelming, uncertain or emotionally charged
- A simple practice to help you move from reacting on autopilot to choosing with calm, grace and self-leadership
Listen in and discover how one conscious breath can help you respond in a way that moves you closer to living your dream life, whatever that means to you.
As always, I’d LOVE to hear what resonated most with you - so please share and let’s keep the conversation going in the Dream Life Podcast Facebook Group here.
Have a wonderful week …and remember, it all starts with a dream 💛
Dream Life & kikki.K Founder
P.S. If you’re ready for guided support, it's a brilliant month to start with me as your mentor in Dream Life Coaching.
SHOW NOTES:
- Buy Kristina's book, Your Dream Life Starts Here
- Buy a Daily Wins Journal.
- Follow Kristina on Insta and TikTok
- If you feel it's time to take a leap and invest in you, join:
- My Platinum Coaching Program where in April our focus will be on Owning Your Mornings and Transforming Your Life - with a Morning Ritual. Learn more here.
- My Dream Business Book Club here. In April, we'll be reading and learning from:
The 1 Page Marketing Plan, by Allan Dib. Whether just starting out - or an experienced entrepreneur - this is the easiest & fastest way to create a marketing plan to propel your business growth.
- My online personal Growth Book Club GROW, April, where we'll be reading and squeezing the learnings out of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, by Cal Newport
-
Dream Life Community Facebook Group: Connect with like-minded dreamers.
RESOURCES:
- Sign up to our email list here to hear about upcoming workshops.
- Take your first step to getting clarity on what you want from life with this free bonus dreaming exercise here 101 Dreams Audio Guide
- Buy Kristina's book, Your Dream Life Starts Here
- Discover how close you are to living your Dream Life. Take our 5min Quiz here and get personalised insights emailed to you...
TRANSCRIPT:
Hi there, and welcome back to another Monday Morning Motivation episode. I’m so glad you are here. Whether you’ve just woken up, you’re out on your morning walk, making your coffee, commuting to work, or easing into the day, this is your moment. This is your reminder. And I think today’s episode is going to land somewhere deep.
Let me start with a quote, one that always makes me stop when I hear it. It’s a quote by Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor, psychiatrist, and one of the most profound human beings who ever lived.
He said:
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
I’m going to say it again because I want you to really sit with it for a moment.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
That space, that tiny, powerful, easily missed space, is where your life is shaped in so many ways.
Here’s what I want you to think about this morning.
Every single day, life throws things at you. Big things, small things, expected things, and completely blindsiding things. Someone says something hurtful. A plan falls apart. You get disappointing news. You scroll the headlines and feel your chest tighten. Your alarm goes off and your first thought is already overwhelm.
Those are the stimuli. And they are coming. They always come. We do not get to opt out of that part.
But here is what Viktor Frankl understood from the most unimaginable circumstances a human being can face, and what most of us forget in the ordinary moments of our ordinary days: we are not our reaction.
There is a gap between what happens to us and what we do next. And in that gap, however small it might feel, we have a choice. Not always an easy choice. Not always an obvious one. But a choice.
And that choice, that is where our power lives.
So what does that look like in real life?
I want to make this really practical for you this morning because it is easy to hear something like this and think, yes, beautiful, very wise. Then your toddler spills something, your inbox explodes, or someone says something awful and every bit of that wisdom flies straight out the window.
I know, because I have lived that many, many times.
So let’s bring it into a Monday morning.
Maybe this week you are walking into something hard. A difficult conversation you have been putting off. A project that feels overwhelming. A situation at home or at work that has been draining you. Or simply a world that feels heavy and uncertain.
That stimulus is real. I’m not asking you to pretend it isn’t.
But this week, I want you to practice finding the space.
When something lands on you and triggers a reaction, before you send the message, before you say the words, before you spiral into the story your mind wants to tell, pause.
Even just for three seconds. Even just for one breath.
That pause is not weakness. That pause is not passivity. That pause is mastery.
Because in that breath, you move from reacting to choosing. And choosing, even imperfectly, even uncertainly, is how you become someone who is no longer at the mercy of everything around them.
Viktor Frankl wrote these words after surviving the most extreme human suffering imaginable. And what he discovered in the concentration camps, watching people around him respond to the same conditions in very different ways, was this: the last of all human freedoms is the freedom to choose your attitude in any given set of circumstances.
Let that sink in.
Not your circumstances. Not the weather. Not what other people do or say or decide. But your response.
That was his. That is yours.
That is the one thing that can never be taken from you.
And when you start living from that understanding, and really living from it, not just knowing it intellectually, something changes.
You stop outsourcing your peace to the behaviour of other people.
You stop waiting for circumstances to improve before you decide to feel okay.
You stop being tossed around by everything life throws at you.
You become, as I always say, the designer of your life, not the passenger.
It’s not an easy thing to do, but it is absolutely worth practising.
So here is your intention for this Monday.
This week, I want you to notice the space.
When something happens that would normally send you straight into reaction mode, notice it. Name it. There is the stimulus. Here comes the pull to react.
And then choose.
Even if it is hard. Even if it takes practice. Even if you do not get it right every time.
Because growth is not about being perfect. It is about being conscious.
It is about showing up in your life with your eyes open and your hand on the wheel.
That is your dream life. Not a life without challenge, but a life where you meet challenge with intention, grace and the quiet confidence of someone who knows who they are.
You have that in you. You always have.
And I also know how hard this can be, especially if you are feeling rushed and like you have so much on. It can be really hard to implement this when life feels full.
So I am running a workshop next week called How to Stop Feeling Rushed and Finally Feel Ahead of Your Life. If you would love to join me, head to the show notes or go to Dream Life Starts Here and explore Dream Life Coaching.
It is a one-off workshop and if you are feeling rushed and this quote feels hard to put into practice, it may be exactly the support you need to finally feel ahead of your life.
Now go make it a beautiful week. Practice it and see how you go.
As always, progress, not perfection.
And as always, I’ll be back on Friday with another episode. I can’t wait to see you then.
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