Wisdom Wednesdays-#291 The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast

I’m In Control

I am in control of myself, it’s all I control so I don’t focus on controlling things or other people. I control my expectations, I control my work ethic, I control my perception, and I control keeping myself in control.

If we’re not careful we allow inanimate objects, ideas, or things to control us. We use language that takes the responsibility away from us and puts it somewhere else. Yes, we do this to protect ourselves from not feeling bad about making wrong choices, but it is a dangerous and slippery slope to proceed upon. We use words like it’s not my fault they made me do it, I can’t help myself it’s just the way I am, or they make me so sad, angry, upset, feel so helpless, happy, or any other emotion you can add in here.

I’m not saying that we cannot get mad, or happy for that matter, from someone’s actions…but in essence they DON’T make us feel a certain way…we process how we want to feel about it. They will do a certain action and then we will decide how we want to think about it which will then create an emotion associated to that thought. We think that emotions just happen, but Stephen Covey the Author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People…stated that even though an emotion seems instantaneously…there’s a window…no matter how small it might be of where choice is chosen. It seems so instantaneously that we think it just happens. And by thinking this way we are become robots in our decision-making process.

We put the blame elsewhere for the negative things…and then we become helpless to feel the great things in life as we wait for someone or something else to MAKE me happy. But in the end no one or no thing MADE us happy or sad. They created an action, event, or certain type of environment…and then WE decided how we wanted to feel about it. When you begin to truly understand this, not just in your mind but consciously in your actions as well…you will have more freedom in your life.

The greatest prisons are not from the people or things around us, they have not put us into anything…the greatest prisons come from the ideas we have made about who’s in control of our lives. No one controls your thoughts…except you. And the more you take ownership for your thoughts and your emotions then the easier your life will be.  The less you will put blame on something else, and the more you will take ownership of the direction of your life.

You are in control of how you think and the emotions you put to those thoughts…so if you aren’t liking how you feel, or you’re not liking the outcomes that are happening in your life… begin to analyze how you think and see how you can associate different meanings to the things that are keeping you imprisoned.

Today’s Personal Commitment:
Look at something that has upset you, something that you might have blamed on someone or something else…and how can you recreate the events to think about it differently? What thoughts would you say now, instead of putting the blame on someone or something else? Write down the thoughts that put you in control of your emotions, and write down the responses and feelings you would rather have…as opposed to the ones you had or currently have that don’t make you feel in control. And one question I like to ask myself, and my students about our emotions…are you reacting???or are you responding? When we respond we choose more wisely, rather than reacting haphazardly. Yes reacting could be said it done out of instinct…but you can respond with instinct too.

I’m In Control

 

 

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

 

 

Music by:
- Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
- I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
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