Feeling Out of Control? YOU Have Choices!

Do you feel like things are out of control? Too many irons in the fire? Too many things on the 'to do' list? Not enough hours in the day?

Feel like someone else is driving the bus and you aren't liking the direction it's heading?

YOU have choices...

breathe

Stop whatever you are doing right now. Close your eyes. Breathe in, Breathe out. Put down your smart phone. Grab something to drink (ie: water, coffee, etc...) and take a seat. I want the next 7 minutes of your life...starting now...

Here's a gift I want to give you: I met a man who was a college football star. He went surfing and had a terrible accident. He woke up paralyzed from the neck down. That's right...he can't move his arms, he can't urinate without help, he can't dress himself, feed himself, make love to his wife, hold his children, etc...(I know...you're wondering what kind of gift this is...). I don't want you to feel more fortunate because someone is in a worse situation. I don't want you to feel that your troubles are less significant than they were 4 minutes ago. I want to tell you about Ron. Ron can't control what he wears, what he eats, when he urinates. HE has no control...or does he? If you had time to hear him speak, he would tell you that he has a single choice each day. In my mind, it's the same choice each of us have. That choice is the attitude we choose to have about the day. The rest of us are fortunate, our day starts with the attitude choice and from there we can make many other choices. Ron has JUST that choice.

Who controls our attitude? It's not our boss, it's not the 'honey do' list, it's not our weight, it's not our height, it's not the amount of money we have in the bank. WE control our attitude. We decide if we are going to be thankful, miserable, rude, selfish, greedy, etc...

If we choose to be thankful we will be gracious. We will be happy, we will be smiling. People will want to spend time with us. We will be thankful for the breaths we take, the people in our lives, the mornings we wake up, the opportunities we have.

Or....we can wake up upset about the weather being too hot, the mortgage too high, our boss a jerk, etc...and from there, we will alienate our friends, we won't attract the right people, we will surround ourselves with others who are miserable. Then...we are in a much worse position than Ron, because we will have chosen to make ourselves emotionally handicapped.

On that note - what's your choice for today? tomorrow? this week? this year? this lifetime?

Crystal J. Casavant-Otto is a church musician, business owner, active journaler, writer and blogger as well as a dairy farmer. She lives in Reedsville, Wisconsin with her husband, two young children (Carmen 6 and Andre 5), three dogs, two rabbits, four little piggies, and over 200 Holsteins. Crystal and her husband, Mark, are expecting another son at the end of September. You can find Crystal blogging at: http://bringonlemons.blogspot.com/