Author’s note: I found this little gem this week! It was post drafted on my phone on Saturday, July 13th, 2019. I was struggling with the decision to move on from my current role… losing sleep, anxiety, the whole thing. I had been wanting to get into management consulting for the last 6 months but was too scared to take the chance. Leading up to this particular morning I had spent HOURS on the phone and in countless lunch meetings with friends and connections talking about “what I want to do”. All of them said, “yeah, that sounds great! But… you have got to take a chance and just DO IT!” I woke up this particular morning and had a clear head. Something told me that it was gonna be all right…
As I sit here sipping coffee on a calm and sunny Saturday morning, I find myself pondering the activities of the last few weeks. It’s funny how we want things to happen when we feel they need to happen. We’ve been gifted the ability to see the entire board, and understand how we think we can win the game, but only have control over the piece we are given and no control over the actions taken by the other pieces on the board.
Control is a funny thing. It gives us the illusion that we can dictate the end result but, when external factors are involved (factors out of our control), the stony feel of control slips through our fingers like sand.
You only have control over you – your body and your mind. It doesn’t pay to waste your energy worrying about things you can’t control. It doesn’t pay to try to move things along faster or killing yourself trying to “catch up” to where you think you need to be. Show up, use your energy to take action on what you can control and what you can influence. For those things you can’t, let your influence do the work.
I think Ferris Bueller said it best, “life moves pretty fast, if you don’t slow down once in a while, you could miss it.”
You can push, you can divert, you can hope, but it will be what it will be, when it will be. Make sure you take the time to sip your coffee and ponder what you have in front of you and how you can show up every day at your best.
Hey Dan – nice post! I know you will do well with whatever you choose!