“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” -The Serenity Prayer
I’ve been learning a lot about control lately. To be honest, I find myself wanting to control everything in my life. I didn’t realize that until I faced circumstances that were out of my control.
I’ve learned that so much of what we worry about in life are things that are out of our control. Today I want to share with you an exercise that has been helping me in every area of my life:
Pick a circumstance of your life that has been causing you a lot of stress. It could be an issue in your family, at work, with your weight, etc.
Once you have picked one, draw a T on a sheet of paper. On the left side write “Out of my control” on the top. On the right side write “In my control.”
1.) On the left side write down everything you can think of that is out of your control in this situation. Most likely, everything you wrote down are the things that have been keeping you up at night.
2.) Let yourself worry about them. That’s right. Realize that all of those things could very well happen or actually did happen.
3.) Once you’ve let yourself dwell on those things for a while, stop. Realize that all of the things you wrote down are OUT of your control. Decide from this moment on you’re going to stop thinking about them.
How are you going to do that? By focusing on the things that ARE in your control.
4.) On the right hand side of your chart, make a list of everything that you do have control over in your situation.
5.) Determine to focus on those things. Realize that you may have already done everything you can do that was within your control… at that point you have to let go and trust that God will take care of what’s out of your control.
Example: Health/Fitness
Things You cannot control:
- What your current weight is (it’s a result of yesterdays decisions)
- Any negative circumstances that are currently in your life as a result of your health up to this point in your life
Things You can control:
- What you eat everyday from this day forward
- Whether or not you workout today
Bottom line: Stop focusing on what is out of your control. Start focusing on what you can control. I promise it will set you free from the anxiety you have been experiencing and it will set you up to succeed in areas that you have felt trapped in up until this point.
Thoughts?
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