25 Jan Control What You Can Control

I am not in the business of giving advice. I have a wife. My ability to give advice went away right after I said, “I do”, but that is not a bad thing. In fact, it makes life so much easier. But I felt the need to share something as we start this new year, and it is NOT advice. I am simply sharing a technique that I am using and thought it might provide a different perspective on how you look at life.

I have no idea how our country got to where we are today. This is NOT a political post, nor do I have any intention of sharing my political opinion because it does not matter, and no one cares.  But it does not take a genius to see that we have lost our way, that no one can get along and that we cannot even have a conversation about differences or concerns without a riot breaking out. It is sad.

As the country moves into a new year, with new leadership in Washington, there is so much uncertainty, chaos, and confusion. What do you do to keep the car between the lines on the road? What my family and I have decided is to focus on what we can control and not worry about the rest.

There are many things in our life that we can control. We can control how much money we spend, how much we eat, how much alcohol we consume, who we socialize with, how we treat our family and co-workers, how much effort we put into each day and how much ownership we take in our actions.

We can blame others. We can blame politicians. We can blame our jobs. We can blame our spouses. But ultimately YOU control what you do, how well you do it and how you treat those around you.

Sherrie and I have decided to focus on the things that we can control. We have gotten off social media, we are very careful about what we are watching on TV, we have started a side hustle that we work and spend time together doing, we have decided to give more to charity, we read more, we schedule time for each other every week and we go to bed every night making sure that we have gotten the most out of what God provided for us that day.

No regrets. No need to apologize to anyone because we had a fight about whose politics are right. No need to look in the mirror and feel shame. No reason not to go to bed and get a good night’s rest.

We have been doing this for a couple of weeks, and I’ve got to tell you it feels really good. If you decide to try this and it feels good to you as well, then welcome to the club. If you try it and it does NOT work just remember – it was NOT advice!

Best of luck to everyone in 2021.