Jim’s Gems: Maintain Control

If you’re like most of us, there are days that you feel like events in your life have gotten out of control? Some days, it's easy to feel that way.

It doesn’t matter how diligently you set goals, visualize results, and think positively, your life is going to occasionally feel as if it's gone a little crazy. Carefully laid plans evaporate. People you counted on bail out on you. A health or family crisis strikes. Some catastrophe, personal or otherwise, takes you back to square one. Suddenly you feel as if you're completely off course, and out of control like being on a boat without a rudder.

When you encounter times like this, keep the following in mind.

1)    No one can control every aspect of his or her life, and adversity comes to all of us, no matter how moral we are, and no matter how good our attitude is. Bad things happen to good people all the time.

2)    It's important to realize that there is only one thing in life that is within your power to control, and that is your response to what happens to you. When you find yourself overcome with feelings of fear, helplessness, gloom and doom, you can put the brakes on these feelings by gently but firmly choosing to shift the focus of the thoughts that are running through your mind.

Your feelings are a direct result of the thoughts you think.  Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, author and motivational speaker, said “formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture.” 

Practicing this technique will result in giving you self-confidence and help restore a feeling of control of your life.

Set aside some time every morning and evening for positive thought and visualization. This form of meditation can be a highly effective way of getting your thoughts back under your control again. Give this a meaningful effort and commitment. I am confident you'll be surprised at how well it works.  Remember that success is not final and failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue moving forward that counts.