Reminder

I came across this timely reminder while in Chicago earlier this month.

I've been devouring every type of self-help book in the past year, and only recently realized how earnestly I'd internalized the central messages of these texts, and how much pressure had been building up inside me:

Take control of your life! Take responsibility for your actions! Set your intentions!
Dream big! Know yourself! Never give up! You have the power!

Yes, yes. That's all very well and good.

You can choose your own attitude, write your own story, declare the very best of intentions for your life and cultivate all the self-worth and personal power you can handle.

But that's all you can do.

Beyond your own thoughts, words, and deeds there is actually very little you can control. The Shit Show will come to your town sooner or later, and when it does, it can be easy to forget exactly what you are in charge of.

I have fallen for it so many times. People and circumstances change in unexpected ways, and it's so tempting to scramble around trying to organize and make sense of it all--to try and make it jibe with all those good intentions and lofty goals. This is a very effective way to run yourself ragged.

The Shit Show must go on, but being in charge of it really doesn't sound at all appealing when you stop to think about it. It's time to let go of the filthy, ineffective remote control I've been trying to use, and choose to take charge of something that's actually under my control: myself.