If we’re connecting on social media or you’ve heard me give a talk before, you know that I refer to myself as a recovering control freak and excuse maker. There was a time when I couldn’t trust that things could or would work out if I didn’t do everything I could to control things. Trying to control everything is an exercise in futility, and I ended up frustrated more times than I was satisfied by the end.
When things weren’t going according to plan, I would start to panic. What can I do to avoid the pending doom from happening? No matter what I tried, there were many times when I couldn’t fix things. Sometimes things worked out despite my efforts, and other times it was a complete bust.
It’s taken a long time for me to embrace surrender, but life became a lot lighter once I did. I gave up on trying to control everything. I finally understood that it would be impossible for me to control everything, and attempting to do so was driving me crazy. It took me a long time to let go and let God.
Now that I’ve given up trying to control all the factors of my life, things are working out in ways that serve me, without me putting extreme amounts of effort into making it happen. Instead of worrying about all the things that could go wrong, I now focus my energy on the outcome I want and do what’s in my control to make it happen.
Instead of spending my time overthinking everything I’ve done and worrying whether or not I missed everything, I now do what I can and then move on to something else. I’m no longer stressing out about what I could have, would have, or should have done, and I focus my energy on doing the best I can and moving on.
I feel like I’m more productive now that I’m no longer feeling like I’m responsible for everything in my life. I have accepted that there will always be things that are out of my control, and I’m okay with that (as if I had a choice… 😂).
Even when things seem unsure, I now have faith that it’s all going to work out the way it should and I focus on the things I can do to create the setting for the result I want. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes the end result is better than I imagined.
I’ve seen quotes that worrying is just negative goal setting, and I believe it to be true. Instead of setting up self-fullfilling prophecies of doom, I stay positive, do what I can, and leave the rest to the universe. It can be challenging to remind myself to do this when significant things are on the line, but I know that it doesn’t matter how big the goal is, worrying about things out of my control isn’t going to change anything.
It feels good to know that I have grown and I am able to let go and have faith that everything is going to work out the way it should and not be so attached to the outcome. It hasn’t been an easy journey, but it feels good to be on the other side of it. ♥