Day 301 (Three-Hundred & One) of 365 days

“Sigh…if only I were just a bit luckier…”
I am sure you have said it yourself before, right? That feeling just sucks. Every single time. Everything is now in a mess because you were a victim of circumstance.
You thought about how things would have been better if only the timing was better. If only you were born into a more perfect family. If only you had gone to that school. If only, if only. Have you ever felt that way? Well, I certainly had. And it was a pain in the guts.

This led me to ponder more and more about the topic. I wondered, if everything were determined by circumstances around me, then what could I control? Is there still a purpose in working hard, if in the end you only just fail. You see, we usually blame circumstances so many times for our result. Well, there is some sense to that.
Unfavourable circumstances may change the outcome of a particular endeavour, as opposed to favourable circumstances.
Yet, regression to the mean proposes a very intriguing thought. When you are unlucky, you have a higher chance of being luckier the next time. And vice versa.

The truth is this. Luck may change your supposed outcome one time, two times, but never in the long run, and certainly never in your lifetime. Circumstances are just like a lamp, you are the items around that lamp. When circumstances are favourable towards you, you are seen brightly. Yet all the lamp can do is to shine on the item. If the item is too small, how can it be seen even if the light is shining brightly? Your actions and your core identity are just like those items. Circumstances, in the long run, will only serve to bring out who you are.

Our experience of life (grateful, worried, peaceful, angry, excited, sad, alive, depressed, joyous or anything else) is much more of a reflection of us and what’s going on within us, not a reaction to what’s going on around us. We’ve all had many times in our lives when things were going great on the surface or we accomplished or experienced some wonderful external success, only to feel a sense of disappointment or sadness underneath because whatever it was didn’t satisfy us at a deep level. And, on the flip side, most of us have had moments of incredible joy, excitement and bliss that wasn’t directly connected to anything worthy of these feelings externally.

Always believe that you are in control of the outcome you have in life. True, you will not be able to control every single outcome to work to your benefit but remember that your entire life is still in your hands. You are the captain of the ship.
Believe this. Change your thoughts to recognise this fact. And from there you will realise that your actions will start to change.