Be The Master Of Your Own Destiny
Can you honestly say that you lead your life? Do you own it? Or are you led by others in your life choices and influenced by those around you when making key decisions? Becoming the master of your own destiny starts with finding your ‘why’.
Taking control of your own life means taking an active role in the direction in which your life is headed, whether it’s clearer, more informed decision making, greater foresight or better planning. Taking control means becoming the protagonist in your own life story, the central character, the captain of the ship, so to speak.
A good starting point for taking back control of your life is thinking about what may happen if you don’t. It’s fair to say that the world will not stop turning. However, you risk becoming a passenger in your own life, someone who is along for the ride and takes whatever life may throw at you. You can be a witness to your life, or you can actually live it. Those who undertake a passive role in their own lives can quickly become victims, berating the things in life that happen to them, rather than taking control and making life happen for them. Rather like the people who complain about the state of politics but who didn’t take the time to vote at the last elections, if you don’t take control, you can’t moan that you didn’t make it.
You might think that with all the unpredictability of the world, it’s fruitless to plan and it’s true that sometimes, things beyond your control or comprehension will happen in life – terrible things like losing loved ones, wonderful things like falling in love, incomprehensible things like natural disasters. You have little or no control over these very major things and that won’t change. But without planning your life, you can drift along from one milestone to the next without any clear objective or purpose. Does this sound like the fulfilling life you envisioned for yourself? So often we hear of people falling into a career, without a clear plan or aim but let’s make one thing clear: no-one ever fell into being a CEO of a major corporation or starting their own successful business. No-one ever went to bed one night resolved to get themselves into peak physical shape and woke up miraculously lean and ripped the next morning. An element of chance or fate may have taken them along such paths initially but to become any of those things you have to work hard at it. So, whatever your heart’s desire and your life’s dream, you’ll need to take control, plan and work hard to build towards your goal.
In order to take the reins, it’s essential that you have a vision for your life. This doesn’t have to be a five-year plan detailed down to the minutiae, and it’s subject to some rather major T&Cs. That falling in love thing? Well that can take you just about anywhere in the world. Equally, job offers can arise unexpectedly and take you to pastures new. It’s about having a plan whilst retaining some flexibility and an acceptance that things may change. It’s about being open to trying new things, discovering new talents and passions that will help you to achieve your long term goals.
Taking control of your life will help you to become the best version of you. In your personal life, it will make you happier, more contented and give you more enjoyment – because you won’t spend so much time worrying about things outside of your control and wondering what might happen to you. You will also take responsibility for your decisions, signifying a mature, well-balanced adult, one who is able to reflect on good and bad decisions and use this knowledge in later life. Professionally, you will be more balanced, take ownership of your career development, aware that the choices you make will largely be responsible for your advancement, not how much your boss likes you or what other people around you do.
If you’re worried that this may be all a bit out of reach, then the first step towards taking control of your life is improving your self-awareness. And you’re already one step closer by taking time to read this, reflect and ponder for a few minutes. If you want to take it further, why not explore FindMyWhy, a personal purpose project that will help you to discover your own unique drivers and motivators. FindMyWhy is a very affordable and accessible life-coach tool (priced at just ￡9.99) which starts with a simple online questionnaire that takes just half an hour of your time to fill out. The resulting reports will detail you in your personal and professional lives, your strengths and the values that drive you, discovering what’s important to you and how to achieve it. FindMyWhy will ask the questions of you that you need to answer in order to progress, questions that you may not have thought of before, but ones which will be invaluable in figuring out where you are now and what’s stopping you getting to where you want to be. FindMyWhy will provide tailored advice and guidance, helping you to work towards solutions to making your pipe dreams a reality.
Sound good? You can find more information on our website and have a look at some of the many others who have all been through the process and what it’s meant for them. Visit here to see more and start the process of taking back control of your own life and destiny.