Control

Control is a funny thing. It is a bundle of deception wrapped in a pretty package that looks like stable predictability. But it is all an illusion. A sparkly, beautiful, self-defeating illusion.

There are millions, if not more, variables that impact any given day or event in your life. The idea that you have any amount of control over what happens simply baffles me. Complete control over events simply cannot happen, and I think the people in the world who are most at peace are intimately familiar with this fact.

The one and only thing that you can control in life is your response, which – for the record – is not the same as a reaction. Most people react to things, and they are exerting no control in doing so, but don’t realize that. A response is more thoughtful than a reaction. Reactions are almost automatic, and rarely rational. If you can temper those reactions and take the time to respond instead, it is then that you are in control, and only of yourself.