“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.” – Albert Ellis
A fairly wise man once told me that about a third of the people on earth make things happen, a third have things happen to them, and a third wonder what happened. These days it’s pretty easy to fall into the last two groups. Every news story is about something bad (usually COVID-19 related) that happened or is happening somewhere, to someone.
When we’re bombarded with those kinds of messages, it’s easy to feel like our lives are completely out of control. We’re just along for the ride. The economy will do this, the government will do that, diseases will do something else, and we’re just stuck. It can be a hopeless feeling.
It’s also an unnecessary one. It’s not mandatory that you feel like your life or your business is out of control. It’s not mandatory to feel that way because you control what you do. You control how you react, the steps you take, the standards you hold yourself and others to. The choices you make now in the middle of our current craziness will have an impact, and that impact will be felt for years to come.
None of that should make you feel helpless. It should make you feel empowered. You have a chance to have an enormous impact on your life and the lives of everyone around you, now more than ever. That should energize you, not wear you down.
Obviously, I’m not suggesting that we can control everything. What I’m suggesting is that we can control ourselves, and that’s a pretty big thing. Leave the things alone you can’t control, and get started controlling you. Congratulations in advance on your wild success.
