Control What You Can Control Episode 78

Sometimes half the battle is deciding beforehand how we’re going to react. We live in a sensationalized world where as soon as we look at our smart phone or TV, someone is trying to outrage, anger, or frustrate us.

The “outrage economy” has flourished in the last decade. It works though, right? Negativity sells and keeps eyeballs coming back. 

A couple of weeks, I told you about going fly-fishing for the first time. Click here to read about it.

 We went with a guide who had all the equipment, so we just had to show up. After that I knew I wanted to get into it, but like most hobbies, getting started comes with a cost. I finally bit the bullet and bought my gear to become a full-fledged fly fisherman last week.

 I was itching to try my new rod and reel out, so the next morning I was out there trying to catch a fish. On the hour ride to the river, I told myself I was not going to get frustrated or disappointed if I did not catch a fish. 

I could just imagine what the fish thought when they saw my attempts to catch them. I’m sure if they could laugh, they were having a good laugh.

It turns out that YouTube confirmed later that night that I was doing several things wrong. Naturally, I didn’t catch any fish. BUT I had a great time! I enjoyed being outside, unengaged by technology, and having time to think.

If we’re not careful, it becomes easy to allow others to dictate our emotions and control how we feel. And when we fall into this trap, the next step by those telling us to be outraged is to sectionalize us into teams. Then they tell us why the other side is wrong and why we should oppose them. 

But the thing to remember is that we are in control of our emotions and of how we spend our time. It’s a challenge to be disciplined in what we spend our time on, but figuring out a balance may be necessary for finding peace.

Like many things, setting up rules beforehand for how things will go tends to create peace of mind. This is important when it comes to retirement planning as well. If we’re reacting to what the market does or any given urge, we tend to make irrational decisions. When we can outline our goals and follow a plan, we stand the best shot at long-term success in most any endeavor.

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