The only thing you control is your next action.
You can’t change the past. It’s already happened, and nothing you do will change that. If you don’t like what happened, you can avoid responsibility by looking for somebody to blame, or make other excuses. You can spend hours beating yourself up and wishing you had done things differently. But to get different results, you must learn from what happened and take different actions going forward.
You can’t control the future. The world is too uncertain and complex for you to ensure that you get the future you want, no matter how carefully you plan. I had great plans for how 2020 would unfold for my coaching business, and the COVID-19 pandemic upended all of them. And now that I’m a parent of two young kids, I am learning to hold my plans even more lightly.
You can’t control others. You can try to influence and persuade them, but they choose their actions, not you. What they do is frequently a response to their own experiences, rather than having anything to do with you.
If you can’t change the past or the future, and you can’t control others, what’s left is the present moment and yourself. What you can control is choosing your next action. Will you accept the responsibility to make that choice with #intention and #purpose?
I explore this theme in my new book, You Have A Choice: Beyond Hard Work to Meaningful Impact, coming out next Monday, November 6th. This week, I will be posting insights from the book every day to give you a sneak peek into the contents. Click the bell on my profile to get notified about new posts!
#youhaveachoice