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You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them

– Maya Angelou

I am very pleased to present this quote from Maya Angelou in our quote of the day section. As you know, our efforts have been concentrated on analysing some of these powerful quotes in a personal context to derive a value which we can benefit from. The area of discussion centres around control, our response and how we train the mind to react the way we desire. We are not aiming for 100% perfection when we do this, but certainly a great improvement in the quality of our acceptance of challenges to define a response mechanism.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them

You may argue that you don’t like control and are very happy not to be in charge. That’s unfortunately a very challenging place to be in for the very reason that you will be a victim of someone else’s decision. Of course we cannot control everything that happens to us, but we can certainly try and play a small role in it. This is precisely where the concept of responsibility kicks in! If you want to direct some of the outcomes and have an influence on it, you pretty much cannot escape the responsibility situation. This alludes me to a previous discussion of ours on – it is not only for what we do we are held responsible, but for what don’t as well 

It is great to be in control of things and drive the circumstances the way we want in our lives. But you already know that even if you are in control life throws some challenges that can alter your emotional balance. We have heard a lot of quotes about perseverance, the strength of an unflinching nerve and a few other ideals to strive towards. But before we get to that point, we also have to face a certain reality – what to do about the current situation?

The strength of your character

Let’s talk about it anyway. I again don’t want to allude to the mythical ideals about the strength of a character which can move a mountain. But, we can certainly talk about how our response to situations and circumstances can change the perspective of a problem.

When things go wrong, we have two choices – either let ourselves go on the jolly guilt trip. Or, take a moment – think about it from a wider perspective and say – “Ok, it is not what I wanted, but it has happened. I cannot change the outcome right now, but I can decide not to feel morose, sad, disgruntled and constantly disappointed by it. I am not going to pretend that I am happy, it is awful that things are this way. But I am still not going to let this reduce me to my knees. I am sure there is something I can do to make my situation better” 

Change

We all like change that happens in an instant and solves all our problems. Of course, we do live in the era of lottery. But how many people win them? The odds are better when you take charge of your situation, find a way out and then start working towards it. The discomfort of a current occurrence will keep haunting you.

This is where you will need to find a strength to push the impact of an outcome away. It is not going to help you immensely. Push away any of those thoughts which distract you from the true goal. At this instant it may be about feeling better, but you can’t do that if you keep thinking about how unfair the whole situation is.

Yes, it is unfair, it makes you feel helpless – so what? What are you going to do about it? Motivation or inspiration cannot be just another feel-good factor. Its purpose is to help us get to our results better. If not, it is pretty much a waste of your time, isn’t it?

On that note, we open this discussion for your comments and thoughts. We would love to know what you think about the quote from Maya Angelou:

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them

– Maya Angelou