My wife, Stacy, and I were chatting a week ago about responding versus reacting. She is a licensed professional counselor and provides great insight about this topic.
There is a big difference between responding and reacting.
How do you know if you are responding or reacting?
Let’s start with simple definitions:
Responding – respond favorably or as hoped; react positively
Reacting – act against or in opposition to
Here are some statements I hope will help:
If you react, you…
refuse to listen.
emotionally speed up.
attack, rather than address the issue.
create confusion rather than add clarity.
take people down a negative road.
create distance.
creates more problems.
If you respond, you…
take time to process the issue.
seek a healthy solution.
demonstrate wisdom, which is applied understanding.
take more effort.
are forced to grow.
are less interested in attacking the person.
control your emotions.
Stacy says I am more of a responder. What about you?
Bo Bennett says, “Responding is reaction with thought.”
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