I have a dog who thinks he is in charge of the world, at least the world as he sees it. He only weighs about 17 pounds but thinks that he can bully, manipulate and control full grown adults.
It is in fact, amusing to watch him grab a toy and think that he absolutely can overpower me and take the toy away. He also takes toys he does not want to lose “to me” and puts them in his bed, which is his “safety zone,” thinking that I can’t take it from there.
He does not realize that these beliefs are completely false. When he gets to keep a toy in his bed, it is only because I have chosen to allow that. Experience has “proven” to him that is a “safe” place, even though reality is that I can walk over and pick up that toy anytime I want.
Sometimes he gets a bit full of himself and tries to throw his weight around to get his way. As his attitude gets more aggressive, and just plain annoying, an ironic picture emerges. He will be pulling on a toy, growling and asserting his “authority” right up until I sweep him up off the floor into my arms. The person he is “controlling” now has control of him.
He does not back down easily or happily. He does not appreciate this reality check. In fact, he will turn his head away and refuse to look at me, showing his disdain at this truth. He tries to avoid this truth in his life.
Have you ever played that game with reality in your life? You try so hard to control all types of details, behaviors and even others, in order to feel you have some control over your life.
Unfortunately, we are usually focusing, as my dog does, on controlling things we really have no way of controlling. And that distracts us from focusing on what we need to do and what we really can control.
We cannot control many of the things that happen to us and come into our lives. But we can control how we react to those visitations.
We can control whether we decide to look at the positive or negative aspects of our lives. We can control whether we sit and growl, as my dog does.
Or we can get up and keep walking toward worthy dreams and goals. We cannot control tomorrow but we can choose whether we make the most of what is in our life.
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