From TGIF to TGIE

 TGIF!  This is what I usually get on some instant messaging apps every Friday.  My usual response to my friends and colleagues is TGIE!  

When asked what TGIE is my reply is Thank God It's Everyday!

Why do we assign only a day to be happy and excited about in one week?  Should we not remain happy and excited all the days of the week?  This is something that we don't normally think about.  We simply accept the expression TGIF without putting effort to rethink or question it.

Did you know that we can make a conscious effort to decide our attitude as we wake up each day?  When I open my eyes each day, before I get up from bed, I tell myself "Today is a new day.  I woke up refreshed and renewed.  Today I will decide that I will be happy, no matter what and that today no one can ruin my day without my permission.  Today, I choose to make a difference."

We are creatures of habits.  We wake up and do things by default.  we are a product of conditioning or programming.  What we don;t realize is we can change the program because we are the programmer and not the program.  I think I heard this from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.

Ivan Pavlov, a Russian psychologist, introduced  the Classical Conditioning Theory.  In his experiment with dogs, Pavlov would ring a bell before feeding the dogs.  The dogs began to salivate in anticipation of the food.  After conditioning the dogs with the bell sound and the food, the dogs eventually would salivate when they hear the bell, with or without food provided.  It became a learned response based on stimuli.

Of course dogs, do not have awareness and imagination.  Human beings can rise above the program of responding right away to a stimulus because of our awareness and our ability to choose our response.  When there is a stimulus we can pause and choose how we will respond.

Let us say I said hi to someone on a busy street.  I did not get any reaction.  I can either respond in two ways.  One way is I will get hurt because I was snubbed.  The second way to respond could be, "he must not have heard me.  He is deep in thoughts."

When we become aware, we can choose our response.  Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, wrote in  Man's Search For Meaning, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” 

What is the best way to respond?  When you respond on values or principles, then you can never go wrong.   Even if your decision is not going to be popular one can still have a restful sleep at night.

Proactive people choose their response.  They do not put the blame on others if they are not happy or were passed up for promotion.  One way of exercising your "proactivity" muscles is to anticipate situations that would trigger your hot button.  Think of responding based on your principles instead of being reactive.

Make a decision today and every day on how you will respond proactively.