Imagine youirself in the middle of this nightmare: You are in a bumper car ride at a carnival. A clown crashes his car into yours, sending it flying across the rink. Just as you start to get control of your cart and plan your next move, another car ploows into you from behind and sends you flying again. This happens time and time again…but, you can only catch a glimpse of the grin on the clown’s face before you’re sent spinning again. Your head hurts…your neck aches…your knees are bruised, and you just want off this ride in the worst way.
That was my life every day before I learned the art of being an effective decision-maker. It was insane! I just never felt like I had any real control over my life…at least not from the inside of me to what was going on the outside. Psychologists refer to this as a “locus of control.” An internal locus of control means you feel that your hands are on the steering wheel of your life…that your decisions…your thoughts and desires are taking you where you want to go. An external locus of control means that you believe that external conditions and people outside your life determine how happy you are, or how successful you can become.
You feel positive about yourself and your life to the degree you feel in control of your life. You feel negative about yourself to the degree you feel your life is controlled by external factors…like those bumper cars.
Deciding whether control of your life is internal or external will make all the difference in the effectiveness of your decision-making. All control begins when you take control of your thoughts and realize that all success and happiness flows from the inside to the outside. ~ Mack Newton
