My Riffs

When unsure of what to do, start with the things firmly in your control and work outwards. You can first take control of your thinking, then your actions.  From there you may have varying level of control over those closest to you. Your family, close friends, your resources.  Beyond that, let go.  Grasp firmly that which is in your control. Direct that which you have influence over. Let go of that which is out of your control.

What's in your control, make it happen. What's out of your control, let it go.

Learning to control one single thing will give you power over your entire life. That one thing is your mind. If you can control the mind, you can control the heart, you can control your actions and you can control your emotions. If you can control yourself to that degree, you have found enough control to live a good life. Much of what makes us unhappy is the lack of thought control. Control your mind and you control your world.

The weird thing about control is, the more you try and control something the higher the chance you will lose it. By letting something go you more often retain it. You may not immediately lose it, but eventually almost assuredly you will. Letting go doesn't mean not caring either, letting go means not forcing and not trying to control.

From Wikipedia: The illusion of control is the tendency for people to overestimate their ability to control events. We are beings who enjoy being in control. We're uncomfortable with the unknown. We're uncomfortable with things that are beyond out control. We like to think we can control things, but many things are out of out control. We sometimes lie to ourselves and think we can control something. This is sort of like the illusion of control. The moral of this post is that much is out of our control, no matter how hard we try.  But our actions, thoughts and words are always in our control.  We can't control what happens around us, but we can control what happens within and what comes out from us. Don't try and act like you can control things you can't, control yourself and by that you are exercising ultimate power.

You don’t really know what you have until you give up control. When you control everything in your reach ou don’t know why you really have. When you let go, things behave more naturally and then you know what you have. There’s a lot of freedom in letting go and not controlling. The odd thing is, letting go of many things ends up making them better. So let go of some things you’ve been tightly controlling and see what you truly have.

There's nothing worse than seeing someone force something that just doesn't work. Or just shouldn't be. This seems to happen when we "take matters into our own hands", but really we shouldn't be. I believe in owning things, but the key is owning things under our control. Taking things out of our control, and trying to take them under our control is one of the biggest wastes of time. So yes, be in control and ownership. But don't try control things that are our of your hands.

We’ve all heard the interview question where someone is asked what they would tell their younger self... This video is something I would for sure tell my younger self. I believe I have posted this before, but it deserves being posted again.