There is SO much beyond our control these days, that it was a relief to find a list of things we CAN control.

Then we thought about it a bit…this issue of trying to control things, which can tighten life up too much, add stress and an impossible ideal. Can you REALLY control your thoughts, just like that?…or, how much time you spend worrying?

We like musician Brian Eno’s view as reported by Quartz’s Tim Hartford in Letting Go: The Psychological Benefits of Giving up on Cleaning and Embracing the Mess:

The enemy of creative work is boredom, actually. And the friend is alertness. Now I think what makes you alert is to be faced with a situation that is beyond your control so you have to be watching it very carefully to see how it unfolds.

His Oblique Strategies cards — meant to be randomly selected — were designed to loosen up the stuck or rigid mindset…

Oblique Strategies

 

We find the Things You Can Control list really helpful when we view them as PRACTICES to cultivate…

…to losen the control a bit.

 

via Swiss-Miss via ThinkGrowProsper

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5 replies on “Things You Can Control, with Caveats + Brian Eno

  1. p.s.: The ‘Thank you’ was controlled.

    The ‘smile’,…un-controlled.

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