How to Take Control of Your Life

Are you feeling a little out of control of your life right now?

Michael Altshuler once said, “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”

It got me thinking, how many people are really the pilot of the course of their lives??

Who is really choosing the destination that you’re going to? And how are you going to get there?

What does it mean to be the pilot of your life? It means:

• You know where you're going.?
• You have a plan of how to get there.?
• You probably have the tools, the resources, and the way to get you there.

Do you feel that you are in control of your life right now? That you are really the one in the pilot's seat to get you there??

There are many times in our lives when we feel a little out of control. We feel like we are not the ones who are really charting the course for where we're going. You may be in one of these situations:?

• You're supporting a partner who is going back to school, so you're working in a job that you don't really want to work because your family needs the money.?
• You have children, so what you do and where you go depends on what THEY want to do.
• You're supporting a partner and THEIR dream to move somewhere for a great career opportunity, so you're kind of going along for the ride
• There's someone or something in your life that is charting your course and telling you where to go and how to do it. It could be aging parents, sick parents who need your support, and you've had to put everything else on the backburner.?

Are you in any of these situations??

I want to give you full kudos. You are such a loving person to be able to give up what you want to do for others. But it's hard to not be in the pilot's seat if you want to be. It's hard to let life or others make your decisions for you when you have your own desires.

If you have had to make a really hard, selfless decision to support a partner, a family member, or a parent, I applaud you. Reading this might not be the right step for you, but it gives you an idea of what you can do to feel in control of the other areas of your life.?

You may just be feeling out of control for some reason (like COVID-19) and it’s making you feel like you can't chart your own course. What if you're in the midst of trying to gain back control, but until you complete something, do something, or a certain time comes, you're held back?

Getting back into your pilot’s seat

I've got a few tips, tricks, and a few philosophies around how you can get back into being in the pilot's seat. As a coach, I find that one of the hardest questions that I ask people is, “What do you want?"

• What do you want in life??
• What do you want to be??
• What do you want to do?
• What do you want in your ideal life?

That simple question, though, of “What do you want?” isn't so simple.

We then go through the process of looking at all 10 areas of life and figuring out what would make you feel the most fulfilled and happy.

If you want to be the pilot of your life, you need to be able to answer the question, “What do you want?” And not just answer it but answer it with confidence and with passion.?

What do you want in each of those 10 areas? With your:

• Family
• Friends
• Fun and Recreation?
• Personal Development/Education?
• Career
• Health
• Finances
• Significant Other/ Romance
• Spirituality?
• Physical Environment?

Then, we determine what are your top three goals that you want to be focusing on right now.?

“What do you want?” and “What are the top things that you want to be focusing on?” will really get you to where your destination is. If you want to be the pilot of your life, you need to know where you're going. That's how you get back in control.?

A lot of times, we are living our lives according to other people's agendas. The agenda of your boss, spouse, family, kids, and maybe even of society.

With Michael's quote, “the bad news is time flies.” Therefore, if you want to gain back control, today is the day. Figure out what you want, and then you need to make a plan to get there.

It could be time to have some difficult conversations with others:

• About what you truly want in life
• About what that means for them?
• About how you're not going to be as available

You have permission to take back the pilot's seat… to be the pilot of your plane.

It doesn't mean you don't honor anybody else or their wants. It means that you get to fly your course, too. You have permission to have clarity on what you want, the confidence to go for your goals and to get into action.?

The next piece is, who do you need to be in order to get there. Do you have to be organized, creative, confident, outspoken, determined, persistent, resilient? There are so many different ways of being. It's not just the “doing” that's important. It's the “being” side that helps you to get there.?

What type of pilot do you want to be?

There have been times in my life where I looked around, and I thought, “Wow, I didn't necessarily pick this job. It just kind of found me. It was offered to me. I knew someone who knew someone who was offering a job, and now I have the job.”

Then I look around and I think, “Wow, I'm hanging out with these people. I'm friends with these people.” But again, I didn't necessarily choose them. They were connected to a job, my kids, or they were in a club I was in.?

I wonder, in your life, how much of your life is by your own design? Or how much is just based on circumstance, convenience, or settling??

I'm not saying just because you happen to get a job or you happen to meet people and hang out with them, that you're settling. But it's a question to ask yourself. If you want to be in the pilot's seat and if you want to be able to chart the course of where you're going, you need to be honest about where you're at. If you could, Would you choose your career again? Your friends again? Your situation again?

So once you know where you're going, you know your top three goals. You know how you need to redesign with other people and you know who you need to be. It's time to take action.?Make a full plan.?

What's the first step? And then after that? And then what comes next? What do you need to learn? Who do you need to bring on board to help you to get where you're going?

Are you now thinking, “Oh, man, I don't want to be the pilot. I want to be the passenger. I just want someone to take me through this.”

Whether you want to be the pilot or a passenger or not. If you don't feel like you're getting the right answers, or you have the clarity but you’re not getting into action or you lack the confidence around it, let's have a conversation.

Reach out to me?[email protected].?I really want you to be able to be in the pilot's seat of your life because, as Michael says, time flies. Can you really miss another day?

Read my other blogs here:?

1.?How is Overthinking Affecting you?

2.?4 crucial questions about your life path

3.?The Power of Baby Steps