How many lists, processes, routines, and systems have you put in place just to get control of your day?

And even though you have all these techniques in place you still feel at times that things are spinning out of control. You feel as though things are falling through the cracks and you’re dropping the ball.

Your continuous effort to shape the world, to make the world conform to the way you’d like it to be can be exhausting and even demoralizing.

What if you stopped trying to control everything?

Does just the thought of doing so cause you anxiety?

Do you feel your body getting tense at the thought of not having control?

Continuously focusing on outcomes will almost always keep you in a never-ending stress cycle. And no matter how many lists or routines you have in place, there’s rarely a guarantee that things will work out exactly how you want them to. They might get close, but is close good enough for you?

One of the keys to relieving yourself of the stress of control is to be able to detach your actions from outcomes. I’m not advocating for you to give up on anything you’re attempting to accomplish, or that you shouldn’t have goals. What I’m suggesting is that you shift your focus from the end result to the task at hand.

You take action and surrender simultaneously.

The idea of surrender might have a negative connotation in your mind, and it could sound like I’m asking you to give up. And in a way I am, but not on your goals. Only your attachment to them.

Surrendering is not easy, especially if you’re used to the illusion of always being in control, or consider yourself a highly driven individual, but it is possible.

When you surrender, you have the opportunity to experience tranquility. A peaceful knowing that you’ve done what you can, you’ve set the ball in motion, now you observe and see where it lands. And then you can act again.

Try surrendering today. Start with a small task and see how you feel. If it doesn’t work for you, you can always go back to pretending you’re in control again.

P.S. Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it please share it with one person you love.