Is Control The Answer To Everything?

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I've been battling for a long time with something I read a long time ago and I think just this week I've accepted it to be a truth.

So as most of you know (or anyone who has been to my site at least a couple of times knows) that a couple of years ago I started to study the stoic philosophers.

I've read a lot of their works primarily from Zeno, Seneca, Epictetus, Ryan Holiday (present-day), and others.

But my favorite has to be Marcus Aurelius.

With that being said...

What I wanted to talk about today is this the thought about "Control".

For so long I have believed somewhere in the back of my mind or maybe it was in the front who knows that I could control things around me. 

I could control my environment, I could control the outcome of situations, I could control others in my life, I could control anything if I was just willing to work hard at it.

But through my reading, I've come to realize that I can only really control three things in life and that is pretty much it.

Everything else is outside of my control and I have to accept it for what it is or isn't.

Those three things are what I want to talk to you about today and hopefully, this might help you a little bit with any type of control you might think you have or don't have in life.

The first thing that I can control is my thoughts.

Sure they may not always be the best thoughts or the nicest thoughts but I can control what I think and how I think about things.

Is it easy to do... Not always but it is something I can control and it's something that with a little introspection and effort I can make better each day.

The second thing that I can control is my mind.

I can control what goes into it and how it processes the information I feed it. 

I can also control the output from it as to whether it is positive and productive, or negative and destructive.

Again is it easy to do... Not always but it is something you can work on to make better daily.

The third thing that I can control is my perspective.

I can control how I see the things I take in and the things I output into the world.

Does it mean that I am always right? 

Not necessarily, but then is anyone always right? No, we are humans and not being right and making mistakes is how we learn so that in an of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Is this something that is easy to do... No, but it is something you can control and something that you can decide to change at any time. That in and of itself gives it great power. 

How one person perceives something could be awful and unattractive, but to someone else, they may perceive it as beautiful and desirable. It's all in your perception of things.

Here is the big secret my friends...

For so long I have been spending a lot of energy and time trying to control so many things.

Now I realize anything outside of these three things we just talked about is outside of my control.

I'm starting to back off on the energy and time I spend trying to control things I can't and starting to use that time and energy for other things in my life.

Have I found the perfect path or have all the answers... No, I'm just trying to get better as I go along as I am sure a lot of you are trying to do too.

So leave me a comment below and let me know what your thoughts are on this topic. 

Share any insights you might have so that we can all learn from each other and grow to be the best people we can be.  

Also, let me know if you are already doing this what new things have you started spending your time and energy on?

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