What Is In Our Control?

Rajesh Abichandani is an ICF certified PCC, NLP Practitioner and an IT Professional with a passion for coaching and empowering people. Here, he writes about focusing on things that are within our control and learning acceptance around which we cannot.

Let us imagine we have an orange in our hand. What can we do with it?

We can peel it, eat it, make juice out of it, or even squeeze the peel to spray our friend’s eyes and have some fun. Something common about all these options is that they’re things in our control.

However, do we have control over how the orange tastes? Can we know whether it is sweet or sour just by holding the orange? We could spend all day pondering or discussing what it could taste like – without eating the orange at all – but does that help?

The answer is, simply, No. What we see here, is that, in any given situation, there are certain factors in our control, and many others that aren’t. While we can take action on things that we do have control over, it is impossible to do the same for those that are out of our hands. We just need to accept them as they come.

Some key takeaways:

● Always remember – in every situation there are factors we can control, and those that we simply cannot.

● We need to be wise about which type of factors we decide to focus and spend time/effort.

● Focusing on what we can control allows us to navigate situations and make good decisions that have an achievable result. Hence, we are able to achieve our goals and be successful.

● When we focus on what we can’t control, we tend to complain and put blame on things like not having enough time.

● What we choose to focus on is in our control.

During these difficult times, while we’re stuck at home, there are many things we either can or cannot control. Ask yourself – what is in our control? Where do you want to spend your time and energy? What do you want to focus on?

Why don’t you and your family/ friends make and share a list of ways you’re each taking action and spending time on the things you can control?