“Control what you can. You can control your mindset. You can control which version of you that you bring to your family and team each day. You can control what you consume.”
-Julie Nee
When I think of our mind, especially our mindset I associate it to the likes of a TV remote control. Let’s for a moment look at the purpose of what a remote control is. It has the ability to control the TV channel that you are currently watching and you have the option of pressing the certain buttons with arrows mark “CH” to change the channel one channel at a time or you can type the number of the channel you want the TV to jump to. Also within this remote control the volume of the TV by pressing the up or down arrows. There are plenty of other functions that could be explained but the purpose of today’s message is not to learn all about remote controls. It is to think about and answer this question: in order to have any of those functions of the remote control actually happen what needs to occur? We need to push the buttons on that remote control in order for any of those functions to happen. We are the ones that choose to increase or decrease that volume or what specific channel the TV will be on. We are in control. And Trainer and Speaker Julie Nee reminds of this in today’s quote: we, like a remote control, have the ability to control ourselves, our own channels or volume level if you will and how we conduct ourselves within our team at work and our team at home. We are in charge of our own actions.
All of us have the ability to make those conscious decisions of whether we have to do something or get to do something. We can choose to be happy at home or work or act miserable and unsatisfied. Controlling our impulses becomes a work of art over time and can only be truly achieved through the time and effort we put into it. I hesitate using the word master because I believe mastery equals perfection and no one in my mind that is living and breathing on Earth as we speak is perfect or flawless. We all can do a better job managing how we handle stress, how we discipline or motivate ourselves, and determine what goals to focus on. All of these examples make up the things we can control and is within our power.
It is up to us, what version of ourselves that we want the ones we love most to see each and every day. Will we get this right all the time? No, most likely not. Once we take this unnecessary pressure we have the tendency to put on ourselves off the table, we will be able to handle what comes our way better by realizing mistakes will happen as we will lack that self control. The challenge is learning from it and readjusting our mindset by just changing that imaginary remote control within our brains to a channel that will bring forth greater control in handling those moments better. That power and capability is there, we just need to choose to use it.
What does this quote mean to you and how can you apply today’s message towards managing yourself better?
Becoming The Change 