Reaction Vs Response

Have you ever thought what is the difference between Reaction and Response ? Here it is....................

A group of ladies were sitting in a restaurant and waiting for their Coffee. Suddenly, a cockroach flew from somewhere and sat on one of the ladies. She started screaming out of fear.

With panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group got cranky to what was happening.

The lady finally managed to push the cockroach to another lady in the group. Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama. The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter.

The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behaviour of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed and threw it out with his fingers.

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behaviour? If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed?

He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos. It is not the cockroach, but the inability of those ladies to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach.

I realized even in our case then, it is not the shouting of our spouse or our boss that disturbs us, but it's our inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs us. Its not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs us, but our inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs us. More than the problem, it's our reaction to the problem that hurts us.

Lesson learnt from the story:

We should not react in life. We should always respond. The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded. Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always intellectual.