How To Deal With Being Out of Control

I was trying to get a shot with Winston the Wonder Poodle next to the almost blooming daffodils. I wanted him to look right down the barrel of the camera. As you can see, I failed. No matter what I said, promised, clicked, whistled, or did would get him where I wanted.

It feels like the same thing is happening in the world right now.

We are trying to get people to follow the rules and guidelines, yet they won’t. It is lock down in Melbourne and you are not allowed to have people visit, so one group of people decided to have a birthday party with 16 people. They got caught and now have over $26,000 in fines.

Another group of people lied about their prior whereabouts when entering Queensland and got fined $24,000. Some even tried to run from the car when they were being pursued.

So this poor behaviour means COVID19 case numbers are rising. More businesses are being locked down. Peoples lives are being put at risk. This means that they are even discussion a return to Level 4 lockdown in Melbourne.

Many people are feeling out of control, and rightly so.

So how do you deal with being out of control of so many important aspects of your life all at the one time?

One simple strategy is to be where your hands are. Our lack of control comes from thinking about the future and projecting how things will be in a time we are not even in yet.

Being where your hands are means considering, what can I do RIGHT NOW? What is my focus RIGHT NOW? What is one thing I can do RIGHT NOW that will benefit me, those around and me and move me closer to my goals.

Bringing that focus back to the here and now means you are not thinking about what could, should or would happen but on what IS happening.

I didn’t get the photo I wanted with Winston the Wonder Poodle, but I did get some fun shots. I could then move on and focus on the next thing on my list, which was to reward him for a good walk and then give him a big belly rub.

Now that made both of us happy!