Control Yourself to Control Life

We all desire control on people and things around us. Obviously, it’s a great feeling to be in control.

Many of us will do a great deal of preparation to achieve this worthy objective. Also, it has been observed that in this quest for control, most of us overlook the most important opponent to tackle. As a friend I must tell you that all those efforts will go in vain, if for any reason you fail to gain command on this mighty beast. Ironically, this animal is none other than you.

Let’s Implement Logic:

I am very confident that this “SELF CONTROL” talk is nothing new for you. At an earlier stage of your life you must have heard about it from an elder, teacher, friend, boss, co-worker, or a religious head. I don’t say that if everyone is talking about it, then it must be true. Instead I would like you to consider the example of a boozed driver.

The very same driver drives very well when goes to the liquor shop, but nothing can be guaranteed when he leaves for home after some heavy drinking.

It’s the same driver but in different situations. Earlier he had control on himself, even afterwards everything remained same except the ability to control oneself.

The simple and straightforward conclusion is that when a person has control on his mind, then things (most of them) go as he desires. On the other hand a person without control on himself loses control on other things as well. A very similar idea was proposed by Acharya Chanakya. One of the Chanakya Sutras says:

इन्द्रियवशवर्ती चतुरंगवानापि विनश्यति |

It means that “Someone with a chaturangani sena, but without self-control with face destruction“.

* A Chaturangani Sena is the army with four elements. Those are Elephants, Cavalry, Vehicles, and Infantry.

Yes! Even a big army cannot protect a person if he/she denies to protect himself/herself from himself/herself.

It’s About Responsibility Towards Oneself:

Few people care about you and others don’t, but it doesn’t matter much, if you are ready and more importantly responsible enough to care about yourself. The idea expressed in previous line is not about selfishness and please don’t allow anyone to confuse you in this matter.

It’s not a sin to care for oneself. What’s bad is to harm or unjustly exploit someone for own benefit. Until and unless you are not hurting anyone directly or indirectly you can care for yourself as much as you can. Just ensure that the greed never succeeds in dominating you. See, again this is all about self control.

In a nutshell we can say that a responsible man is one with control on himself. Let’s not focus much on guys without self control. They say “Always focus on the sunny side” and I agree.

Benefits:

The list includes, but is not restricted to following. Have a look:

• More control you have lesser will be the probability for anyone to trick you.
• You feel great about yourself on having control.
• You make unbiased decisions and therefore you are more likely to succeed in life.
• Even if you make a mistake, you’ll learn something.
• The best thing is that you become almost immune to ill-effects of any situation. Be it good or bad.

Well! It’s easier said than done. Still. It’s not that difficult. The nice thing is that on acquiring control bit-by-bit the level of ease as well as your confidence will increase exponentially.

A lot of guys asked me about a way to achieve this self control thing. In reality, I don’t have a straightforward answer. Another truth is that I am not in 100% control of myself. So far the strategy of handling one problem at a time has worked for me and maybe it will work for you as well.

One thing that I can say for sure is that this process requires a decent amount of thinking. It’s mostly about extracting the right reasons for indulging or abstaining from something. It is about bringing yourself and your SELF in alignment.

* Harder part of the process is about identifying the mistakes we do and accepting the weaknesses we have. Do it honestly avoiding the blame game without any ego. Then, comes the most important and non-ending part i.e. to improve, evaluate, and improve.

* In the whole process and at any stage don’t allow yourself to feel low. Calm & Happy state is perhaps the best. It might or might not take some time, but for sure a happy future awaits you.

Yes! it will stress your brain a bit, but once you will start understanding the process, you’ll be amazed to look at the results. Lastly, do it with indulgence not as a chore. Remember that “A journey of thousand miles begins with one step”. Then take the next step and another step and then a few more steps … and finally you will reach the destinations (breaks and naps might or might not be required).

Finally, I can conclude by saying that “If you want to control the world around, begin with acquiring control on yourself”. The world awaits you.