Why Walk Your Own Path? You Control More Than You Think
You are in control of more than you believe yourself to be.
This can be a particularly difficult concept to believe, but that doesn’t lessen the truth of it. You are in control over how you think, how you feel, and how you act.
I know that sometimes it feels like that control is really, really limited. Truth is, however, that the only limitations are those that you yourself place. Otherwise, you have far more power and capability to change your life as you would most desire than you probably believe.
I created Pathwalking with the intent of taking control over my life, and creating the destiny I believe I am meant for. I have long known that the standard courses in life were not for me, and overall I have not taken those particular paths.
One career since college? Nope, not at all. I have held numerous jobs, but not followed a single career path until fairly recently. Marriage in my late twenties or early thirties and raise kids? Nope, didn’t get married until my early forties, and we’re not going to produce children. Buy a house, use it to build equity and maintain stability? While I have been a homeowner, the current plan is to not buy again anytime soon, and rent for the purpose of mobility.
Why am I pointing these out? Because it is way too easy to let society dictate control over our lives. We live in a society that discourages us from striking out on our own path, rather than choosing something not-the-normal. Rather than empower the individual, our society prefers to keep us underfoot, at the whim of our bosses, our religious and political leaders, our supposed superiors.
You are In Charge of You
Nobody is superior to anybody else. It does not matter if they have more education, more money, more experience or are older than you or more specialized, the only person you answer to, when all is said and done, is you. The only power anyone else enjoys over you is in place because you have given it away.
That is a particularly hard pill to swallow. We are so indoctrinated into this idea that other people can control us, that other people can be responsible for our emotions and actions, that we cannot believe this is only true because we allow it to be. Other people are only able to affect us as much or as little as we allow them to.
For example, let’s say you were in a relationship, but then your partner unceremoniously dumped you. Yes, you feel hurt, probably betrayed, and upset…but chances are you blame them for hurting you. They caused you to be hurt, they treated you poorly, and in all likelihood your feelings and opinion of your former partner will only spiral downwards from there.
Yes, it was the action on the part of your former partner that caused those bad feelings. Yes, it is perfectly normal and totally human to feel hurt, betrayed and upset. But, you are the one feeling these feelings. As such, you get to choose how long you will hold onto them, and how far along the downward spiral you care to travel.
You are the only one who can feel how you feel. While there are uncountable outside influences that can and will effect how you feel, you are the only one who actually feels what you feel. As such, the person who has caused you to hurt only hurts you for as long as you allow them to have that power over you.
Taking another step from here, you and only you are responsible for your actions. Nobody can make you do anything you do not choose to do. Yet because our society is so keyed into not being accountable for anything, it is easy to place the blame for bad actions we have taken -outside of ourselves.
Take Back Your Power
When you understand that you are the one in control of your own thoughts, feelings and actions, you get to choose how much of that control to exert. You will feel upset for as long as you hold onto it, and you will not take an action that is not of your own accord, unless you choose to and blame it on another. You are the one who gets to decide. You get to choose.
You will notice over the coming weeks changes to this blog. I am studying new ideas to improve what I share here, and that means things will be changing. Since change is inevitable, happens whether we want it or not, I am exerted control over change, and choosing to alter this how I desire the change to be.
Last week I explained how intention is the reality of control. Intention is composed of thought and feeling and action, and you are the only person who can control all of your thoughts, your feelings and your actions. Nobody else can choose for you, nobody else can be in control, unless you allow them to be. You can keep the power over your thoughts, feelings and actions, or you can give it away in part or total. That is your decision.
Consciousness creates reality. Recognizing our own control over the vast majority of our lives, we can be empowered to make almost anything we can imagine of them. We are free thinkers; we are the only ones who feel the things we feel, however we feel them; we are the only ones who can act on our own thoughts and feelings.
You are in control of more than you believe yourself to be. When you recognize this, embrace it and see just how endless the possibilities are before you.
What feels out of your control that you can take back for yourself?
This is the two-hundred eighty-second entry in my series. These weekly posts are ideas for and my personal experiences with walking along the path of life. I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-blog and share.
The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available here.
If you enjoy Pathwalking, you may also want to read my Five Easy Steps to Change the World for the Better.
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