Lauren and I were backpacking around Mexico a few weeks ago.

As we strolled through a tiny village one day – a place so sleepy that even the mosquitos were taking an afternoon siesta – we passed a local market.

A stall in the market was selling books.  And amongst the smattering of Spanish tomes and unfamiliar covers, one book caught my eye.

As I got closer, I could see the title:

Los 7 Habitos de la Gente Altamente Efectiva

Those who took GCSE Spanish will translate this in a jiffy.

But alas I studied German.  And it was only when I spotted the author’s name – Stephen Covey – that I realised this was a Spanish copy of one of the most famous (if not THE most famous) self-help books of all time:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

How strange, I thought, that in a tiny, ramshackle village, and surrounded by stalls selling sandals, watermelons, sombreros and jars of jalapeños, this book was also for sale.

Yet the book has sold over 20 million copies (thank you Wikipedia for this stat). 

It’s undoubtedly a popular purchase.

And for anyone who hasn’t read this classic (or who has, but would like a short refresher) I’m about to spill the beans on the most useful, powerful 3 sentences in the entire book.

Don’t say I don’t look after you!

Here they are:

Entre estímulo y respuesta hay un espacio. En ese espacio está nuestro poder de elegir nuestra respuesta. En nuestra respuesta reside nuestro crecimiento y nuestra libertad.

What’s that?  You don't speak Spanish either?

Here’s the English version:

Between stimulus and response there is a space.  In that space is the power to choose our response.  In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that life isn’t an automatic call & response.

We’re not living in a courtroom, repeating an oath barked to us by a judge.   Nor are we living in a classroom, parroting our times-tables when the teacher bellows “6x7!”.

Instead, there’s a gap between the call and the response.  And in that gap lies choice.

We always have the power to choose how we respond. 

Stuck in a traffic jam?  You can choose how you respond to that.

Battling a huge workload, received some negative feedback, or had a barney with a friend or family member?  You can choose your response to all these too.

To clarify:

I'm not saying it's always easy to choose a certain response.  Often it's not easy at all.

But even knowing that this choice exists is, to me, a relief.

Because whatever situation I find myself in, I know there’s always the potential to respond to that situation differently.

And thus, to see and experience that situation differently too.

Alright.  Enough of my warbling for today.

Ten un excelente fin de semana!

– Tom