inspiration for today/life

In my daily internet digging, I came upon an excerpt from someone else's blog. It caught me.

"I may not be or feel 'mature' but the biggest progress I’ve made in my life, and what I see many other people around me (of all ages) struggling with, is realizing that I can control how things out of my control affect me."

I'm bad at this. I'm always forgetting this. I lose perspective.

It's something I strive for, something that I need to constantly remind myself of - while I can't control everything, as much as I wish I could, I have the power to control how things get to me, at least to some degree. This is a lesson M. is constantly trying to instill in me and I think he has gotten pretty good at following his own advice. I'm really trying to get better at it.

I have no clue who this blogger is but I would recommend reading the blog post in its entirety here. Here's some more of the really good stuff:

"What people don’t understand is that everything that happens in life, especially those things out of our control, can only affect us as much as we allow them to. Things varying from our office copier running out of staples to your once best friend sleeping with your ex-girlfriend. Yes, these things hurt. Yes, no one would ever think less of you for reacting with anger, depression, and frustration. But, that’s only if you let that get to you.

Some of us have been conditioned to this. We’ve learned to ignore the bullies, the online anonymous commentators, the bad reviews, the angry emails, the bothersome texts, the people that don’t want you to be happy, under the idea that to let them in would be to let them win, giving them the irksome attention they want (and deserve). But it’s another thing to brush it off your shoulders, take a deep breath, and focus on the things you’re interested in, not the things interested in you.

You alone are in control of how You consciously react to things. Sure, some insults and harassment are going to give you a check to the gut, get under your skin immediately, and you’ll react on instinct. But it’s how you regain control of yourself and decide if you’ll let this derail you or stay the course.

I’m a passionate person and pride myself on the heart I wear on my sleeve. I’d react immediately and candidly to most anything that came my way. I’d live off the highs and lows before I realized that my behavior was creating more lows than highs. I was alienating myself. I was getting myself into trouble. How I felt about something right after I’d make a decision was not how I felt about it waking up the next morning, or the days afterward. And it sure was exhausting focusing on everything but myself."

I have more to say on this. TBC.