WHAT TO DO WHEN
EVERYTHING SEEMS OUT OF CONTROL
What To Do When Everything Seems Out Of Control
Article by Ling Wong
Photo Credit: Dasha & Mari
Magazine: Issue #28
Have you ever felt like everything is spinning out of control and you are so overwhelmed that you have NO idea what to do?
The solution is not to do more, or to run yourself to the ground.
The first thing is to assume personal responsibility that we CAN take back control. When we feel like everything is out of control, we are relinquishing our personal power to external circumstances and taking on a victim mentality.
I don’t mean being a control freak – trying to control circumstances we cannot control adds a lot of undue stress, and further confirm that we are not in control! But we can decide how we perceive a situation and hence change how we react.
By surrendering, we often open up possibilities that we are unable to see because we are fixated on one specific outcome. There is a fine line between being empowered in a situation and letting go. For me, it always helps to stop, be still and listen.
After stopping and being still, the next thing is to exercise discernment and discipline. When we exercise discernment, we go back to understanding what’s important for us and get clear on the outcome we want.
Then we can strip away things that don’t contribute to that end. More often than not, you will find that a lot of things just don’t matter, and you can stop doing them!
You also need discipline because it’s one thing to identify what can be stripped away, it’s another thing to really do it. We may be afraid that we are not good enough to make that judgment or let go of whatever we need to let go of. We may be afraid that if we don’t do certain things for other people, we will be considered not worthy. We may be afraid that if we don’t perform certain task a certain way, we will get criticized or judged. We may be afraid of missing out if we don’t do certain things.
We have to be able to see through our fears, and have the discipline to take the actions that will lead to the desired outcome.
