Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Control the Controllables



This may seem obvious, but it didn't occur to me until today how much not exercising affects my mood. This does not bode well for the impending winter.

This week has been tough, with traveling over holiday weekend, an art show last night, a Hanukkah party tonight and flying down to Miami for work tomorrow...I haven't had time to go for a run since Saturday! What else has happened since then? I have been continually frustrated at work and I've gotten into two silly fights with Brandon that managed to sour my mood for the rest of the day.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? I'll tell you what, I'm not controlling the controllables. I can't control what Brandon thinks or feels, I can't control what my colleagues say in their emails. What I can control is how I react to all those things. Instead, I'm letting it consume me.

Not okay.

The worst part is, I'm perfectly capable of getting out for a quick run on my lunch break, but not running for the last four days has managed to make me even lazier. I don't want to go for a run on my lunch break! Not to mention it's been getting colder all week and now it's SNOWING!

You know what? I can't control that either. I'm just going to have to roll with the punches.

In the picture at the top of this post: B = f(P,E) ... behavior is a function of the person & his/her environment. I can't control the environment, I can't control what is going on around me. So there is no reason to get upset or overwhelmed by it, because that just becomes wasted/misused energy (or just plain "waste" if we're talking about Lean manufacturing). The person (aka, me). Now that is something I can control. I can control my thoughts, feelings, actions, reactions.

The best advice I've ever gotten was from a sports psychologist giving a talk to my college lacrosse team my freshman year of college: control the controllables. Everything else is not worth stressing over.

Becca, it's time to live by that.

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