Take Control of your Life

Who’s in control of your life?

Recently I’ve been considering the concept of control, specifically the locus of control. Being a control freak myself, this is a subject that interests me. What is the locus of control, you might ask. It is the way in which we view the control of our lives. An internal locus of control implies that an individual takes responsibility for their own actions and therefore the consequences of those actions and an external locus of control implies that one believes everything in their life is controlled by external forces.

When one allows their life to be controlled by external elements they lose their own power. Not having this power can be detrimental to our lives, well-being and success. So many of us lose this power, allowing others to take control and responsibility for our lives. If we don’t have any control, what is the point of life?

As I reach the end of my first semester of community college I’ve been surprised by some of my fellow classmates. Those who turned up infrequently and late, if at all, are those that now anxiously prey upon our professor. They implore with him, “Professor I need a B in this class,” “Professor I can’t afford to fail,” “Professor, Professor, Professor!” Recently, said professor, a wonderfully patient and humorous man, responded by asking one student, after her plead for a high grade, why she hadn’t come to class or completed the work. And I kid you not, she replied that she had a hard life. Now my intention is not to be harsh to the woes of this girl, which I am sure are terrible enough, it is to convey a realization I had because of these incidents. All of the people whom are doing poorly in class believe that somehow it isn’t connected to them. This isn’t their fault! It’s the teacher, teaching to fast! Even if they hadn’t been there to witness his speed. It’s their hard lives, because only people with perfect lives can work hard enough to earn the grade! The class is too early and too long, even if they did pick the schedule! All of these people, I realized, operate under an external locus of control.

Those students in my class will either pass or fail, but either way they won’t feel responsible for that grade. Most likely they’ll fail and leave with their excuses in tow. Imagine what they could do if they abolished that wall keeping them from taking charge of their own lives! Instead of the constant and arduous battle to find external reasons for their failures, imagine if they could take internal responsibility for their successes instead! Imagine what you could do, given the chance to control your own life!

Life is what you make of it, and The Thrive programme is here to help you take the reigns!

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