“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”  – Epictetus

So . . . the heuristic E+R=O isn’t an entirely new concept.  Epictetus, a Greek philosopher who lived AD 55-135, may have beaten Tim Kight to the punch.  Now I don’t have the Greek translation, but I bet it is something along the lines of “we can’t control the events in our lives, but how we respond to each event determines the outcome.”

Our work to live discipline-driven lives, our work to bring life skills as well as academic skills to young people, and our work to intentionally respond to events in our own lives isn’t new.  We are simply putting a process in place . . . we are engaging in a system . . . to help us be more successful.

Pressing pause, getting our minds right, stepping up, and the R-factor disciplines are merely a system to help us live what Epictetus knew . . . we need to be responsible for our actions.  We need to have discipline responses to what takes place in the world around us.

Our work isn’t new . . . we aren’t introducing new concepts.  In fact, we are making life easier by sharing common systems and vocabulary.  We are a team – we are singular culture in a complex world.  Our response to the complexity of the world around us will determine our success.