Highly productive people are like anyone else. They have emotions. The difference is they don't let their emotions destroy their life. They may have rage, but they don't go that final step of strangling someone. They try not to destroy relationships, just because of anger and the heat of the moment. not productive people go through the same things everyone else does in life and productive people are just as likely to get divorced and have other trauma.
The key is productive people never view themselves as victims as passive individuals who are just subject to this fate of the universe. they view themselves as active agents, even if they've been victimized. they view themselves as active agents who are in control of their destiny, even if there were times when they didn't. I've had clients who have been held hostage. For years, I've had clients who have seen members of their own family machine gun down in front of them, seeing their homes destroyed and run out of their own countries. And yet, they're still highly productive individuals because as bad as it was, Today is a new day, they're going to start a new and they're going to make a life for themselves and they're going to help other people and themselves.
Key key difference between highly productive people and others. Everybody has setbacks in life. I've had setbacks, everybody has failures. But many people who are not productive let these failures define them. They let times when they bend victims define them. That's not what highly productive people do.
Look at someone like Malala here She is young girl shot in the face. For having the audacity to one learn how to read. And Is she a victim? Yes, she was obviously a victim. But she's also someone who uses the platform to speak all over the world, win a Nobel Peace Prize and to share a mission and to put a spotlight on important causes of young women and children learning how to read and get educated. She's used this for something much, much bigger than herself and is leading an extraordinarily productive life.
Now, we don't all have something as dramatic as that happened, but we've all had setbacks. How does it define you? If you want to be a productive person, it is something you overcame on your way to the next big thing.