Letter From the Editor BY JACLYN TRUSS
Inspired Action
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.
—Viktor E. Frankl!
images by Farhad Khodayari - @Gurenworld
I feel everything.
Sure, we all feel things,
but I feel more things. Not
more than everyone, but
more than many. My zodiac
sign is Cancer, and we’re
known for being the most
emotionally reactive of the
bunch, as we find ourselves
fully enveloped not only in
our own emotions but that of
everyone else.
It takes an extraordinary
effort to train your brain
away from a reactionary
emotional state (personally
I’m at 20 exciting years
and counting), but it is the
worthiest of endeavours.
There are many gifts to be
unwrapped in the ability
to know what someone is
thinking, feeling, needing,
wanting, fearing or reacting
to—especially when you can
know it before they do—but
only when you yourself have
a measure of self-control.
So how do you go about
sorting yourself out in an all-
encompassing emotional mix?
Between every thought
and every reaction exists a
small span of time that many
of us do not bother to utilize.
I simply call it “response time”
and it is a valuable, malleable
moment that occurs between
a stimulus and a response and,
with practice, you can stretch
that moment for as long as
you need it to be to mold the
response you prefer.
Over time, I have gotten
pretty skilled in exercising
the use of this time and it has
been to my full advan tage
with my reactions now
representing the few and my
responses representing the
many. The success of this
has led me to discover an
emotional time-play that I am
newly cognizant to, one I like
to call “inspired action time”.
I have found that
doing anything when
feeling inspired to creates a
productivity level, success rate
and emotional enjoyment that
is tenfold when compared to
uninspired action.
By inspired action,
I mean action you must
take, not because you have
to, but because you are
driven to, happily, by some
unseen force. You are truly
compelled to take action
at that moment. These are
the moments we love, you
know, those moments that
don’t feel like work even if
you’re working. Uninspired
action, however, is the
action you take because you
feel you obliged to do it,
you have no true call to it
at that moment, you’re just
drudging through some