Reaction Vs
Response
Both 8 lettered words starting with “R” are
many times used interchangeably; but the impact of each word on one’s life is
invariably high. Let us understand it in depth by means of a story:-
The Coffee
Scenario-1
One day, a father in hurry of going to office
was stepping down stairs hastily from bedroom towards the dining table. The
daughter was having her breakfast on the same table. Looking at her father, the
little angel wished “Good Morning Dad” and while trying to embrace him, her
tiny hand touched the coffee mug and the entire coffee spills on father. The
furious father scolds the daughter which leaves her crying. He quickly changes
and on the way to office, he drives his daughter to her school. On the entire
way, daughter was sobbing and didn't utter a word. After dropping his daughter,
he enters office where his boss asked for an important file of business plan to
be presented. But he realizes that, in the hassle, he forgot the file at home.
He was badly reprimanded by the boss and was asked to get the file at earliest.
The poor father did so. After entire day’s suffering, when he rings the door
bell, the wife opens the door with furious eyes without smile on her face (she
was angry with his behavior in the morning). The wife keeps dinner on the table
and goes straight away to her room without talking to him. The father had
dinner alone and on reaching bedroom he finds his wife and daughter in deep
sleep. He too falls asleep with a heavy heart.
x_______________________The
End____________________________x
Scenario-2
One day, a father in hurry of going to office
was stepping down stairs hastily from bedroom towards the dining table. The
daughter was having her breakfast on the same table. Looking at her father, the
little angel wished “Good Morning Dad” and while trying to embrace him, her
tiny hand touched the coffee mug and the entire coffee spills on father. The
father looks at his daughter and moving palm on her hair explains her to be careful
with her actions. The daughter realizes her mistake and says sorry. He rushes
back upstairs to change the attire and after changing, on the way to office, he
drives her daughter to school. On the entire way, the daughter was happy and
excitedly talked about the preparations of annual event to be held in her
school next week. After dropping daughter, he reached office and when the boss
asked for an important file of business plan to be presented, he presented the
file and the deal went as per the plan. After spending entire day productively
in office, when he rings the door bell, the wife opens the door with a sweet smile
on her face and serves the dinner on table. Both while having dinner together
talked about entire day’s activity. They both pampered the sleeping daughter
and fell asleep.
x_______________________The
End____________________________x
Now if we analyse both the scenarios;
What was common in both situations???
“The
Spilling of Coffee”
What
was different in both the situations???
“The Behavior of Father”
In
scenario-1, the father reacted to the
situation and in scenario-2, the father responded to the
situation
Off the entire day in both the scenarios, the
spilling of coffee was 10% portion of whole day while rest of the things that
happened forms the 90% of the whole day.
This is called 90-10
principle which
says;
Only 10% of things in our life are not in our hands and are pre-determined
to happen. However, the rest 90% of the things are determined by Self, Our Reactions
and Our Responses. The life will take us on a different path
altogether if we start practically following the 90-10 principle and start
Responding to things rather than Reacting towards them.
Always remember, Reaction is an impulse
action which surpasses the role of Mind and Response is a thoughtful action
which is sign of a mindful person
“Stay blessed; Stay Happy…"
