The Power of Deciding

There is perhaps no more powerful statement on the power of “deciding” than the famous words of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who in the early years of the 19th Century said:

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration; I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”

(Excerpt from my earlier post: Why Good Leaders Must D.I.E. -- go look up that blog posting on my site to see why such a provocative title ...)