MENTAL DIET

WHO IS IN CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE?

“Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.”

• George Washington Carver (Chemist who discovered over 325 uses for the peanut).

Do you truly feel in control of your life? Or do you feel that your life is out of your control?

Talking about control: as infants and children, our parents or guardian as it were, were in control of our lives; our living was determined by them as they made choices for us and were responsible for us – they may have done a good job at it or the reverse may have been the case but the fact is that their choices; actions or inactions had an indelible effect on us either positively or negatively and there was nothing we could really do about it.

However, as we increased in years our right to control our lives and make choices for ourselves increased as well. And as our years increased to the age of adulthood we became absolutely responsible for our lives – choices, actions and even inactions; as the right to personal responsibility demands in a free society.

The major setback that sets up the majority of the people to fail or live in mediocrity is to grow into adulthood conditioned with the belief that someone or something is to be blamed for their state of life and someone or something is also responsible for their would be progress or success in life. In all these they have no part to play in the game of life – they are only spectators.

The lens through which we see the world controls what we see and our interpretation of what we see. The lens through which we see the world is very critical to our very survival and personal freedom. Your perception of life determines your ability or inability to be in charge of your life.

When we see or perceive life through the lens of our upbringing and childhood experiences especially if it was negatively inclined, we permit the past to hold us hostage and we resort to the blame game which results in losing the game of life.

For the most part many people play out the scripts handed over to them by people and the environment – the rejection, the comparison with someone else which breeds the feeling of inadequacy or inferiority complex, the destructive criticism, the disappointments, the abuse and the like.

Many people live out a default script unknowingly but subconsciously. The default script defines the way they see and interpret events and situations and defies personal responsibility which breeds the loss of a sense of control.

People’s opinion of you are not really a reflection of you – your potentials, abilities and destiny but rather a projection of the concerns and character weaknesses of the people giving the judgment. You see, no one really knows about a customized product but the manufacturer and aside from the manufacturer no one except the product can really be intimately acquainted with itself.

Consequently, you are a Unique Product of the Creator of the Universe. The Creator did not mass-produce us as it were.

The Creator of the Universe created each of us uniquely and designed each of us for special purposes. Therefore, only your Creator really knows everything about you and your future – nobody has the privy to that knowledge or information because a product cannot define or determine another product but only the manufacturer can.

You are the only person that has the capacity to really know yourself as you unravel layers upon layers of potentials and abilities as your journey of destiny unfolds.

Never permit the opinions of others define you lest your destiny be denied. Never permit those who are obviously preoccupied with their lives for most of the time, dictate to you how to run your life and what to make as the occupation of your life against the dictate of what is in your heart.

Never succumb to the lures of public image that runs contrary to your self-image – know who you are and what your life is about and you will just be about fulfilling your destiny rather than fulfilling someone else’s selfish desires.

A sense of control is what we require to become powerful to make changes that make for progressive success.