Life Mastery: The Fully Functional Life

Life takes us on a journey. Some attempt to precisely plan their journey. Some well-meaning parents have a plan for every step of their child’s life, as if they’re able to see the future. Many others leave their child’s future to happen as it will. Of course, those are the extremes and there are many variations in-between.
One thing we know for absolute surety and that is one of my favorite sayings, “You plan and then life happens”.

Whether you consider yourself a Control Freak or one that lets the wind dictate your direction, we all like to have some semblance of mastery over our life. However, having control seems more of an illusion, a magic trick. Once we feel we have it, something happens that causes that feeling of control to feel like it slips through our fingers.

As I have lived my life and had the privilege of experiencing many others’ lives through my time as a Pastor, salesperson, sales manager, corporate executive, Executive Coach, and corporate consultant, I have found that there is a way to have mastery over the important areas of life.

By “mastery”, I don’t mean like that of a person controlling every move made on a chessboard. That is external control. What I mean is much more powerful, that of control coming from within oneself.

If you attended college, you were probably required to read “Mankind’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl. Frankl says,
“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. 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. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
In Stephen Covey’s book, The 8th Habit, he says something very similar,
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In those choices lie our growth and happiness.”

Though I know Frankl was unaware of just how profound the recent findings of Neuroscience and Quantum Physics would embrace his words, and I doubt Covey knew; in this book, Life Mastery: The Fully Functional Life, I will share with you the how, the what, and the why of becoming the master of your life through maximizing the time you have between stimulus and response so that you have the ability to choose.

You will be able to choose beliefs. You will be able to choose thoughts. You will be able to choose emotions. You will be able to choose behaviors. And, you will be able to choose consequences.

This is why I wrote Life Mastery: The Fully Functional Life! I believe it is every person’s ability and right to choose what happens in their life, to have Life Mastery. Even choosing to not be the master of their life is a choice and I want people to know they’re making that decision to allow others to be in control of their life.

So, as you read, I want to encourage you to think of specific times in your life, maybe now, that you can identify with the experiences I share and the changes people were able to make. In doing so, you will be inspired to have Life Mastery and live a fully functional life!