So you want to control your own destiny? Me Too. As far as overcoming an addiction goes, this is probably the number one issue. There are a few basics I had to use and apply to every aspect of my self when I was first getting straight. Not the least of which was learning how to practice some universal principles.

What I’m going to write about today has a little more overall wide ranging theme. Although it can be applied to early recovery it’s meant to address the whole idea of control.

So you want to control your life? You want to be in charge of yourself. You want autonomy in every regard. No? Yes? I am absolutely clear about this in my own life here. I want to have control. I doubt anyone doesn’t feel that way. They might feel it’s not the way to feel but I bet they still feel it.

If you’ve read any of my posts you know I like to get these big topics pared down to a workable size. So today I’m going to start with the first step in gaining control and talk briefly about some realistic expectations.

First off we’ve talked about what we are and so we know that when we talk about control here we’re talking about controlling this tangible aspect of self that we experience here on earth. So being realistic how much control can we expect to have? We are one self among billions. If we take control over ten acres of land we just denied another self control of that land. Do we want control at the another’s expense?

That was just a simplistic example of not living in a vacuum. Everything we do effects everyone else. This is something we’ll each have to think about and decide for ourselves. But lets say we looked at this and decided we wanted to have as much autonomy as possible without denying that same autonomy to someone else. That sounds fair doesn’t it?

Okay, so now we’ve looked at an aspect of realistic expectations and narrowed our vision of control slightly. Now we will want to find those things that we can never control. Those things that effect our lives and we can do nothing to control them. What are they?

There are things like the weather. If lightening strikes – oh well. We can do things like – not go outside and hug the flagpole in the thunderstorm – but we can’t stop the storm. At least not as most of us are today. So all that natural disaster stuff is out of our control. About all we can do there is move to the safest geographical location. Don’t build houses on fault lines, don’t live where the hurricanes strike annually and so on.

What else can we not control? There has been a war waged for control of the planet and that war gave us the monetary system as we know it today. It’s pretty much universal. This isn’t a natural disaster but it is a far worse disaster. Natural events always offer periods of reprieve and an opportunity to relocate.

I’ve had a lot of people showing up here searching for “Freedom from financial insecurity”. In fact looking at this trend is what led me to write this today. Financial Insecurity, like insecurity in general, is fear. Fear is not control. It could be said it’s the opposite of control. I don’t know anyone with control of there lives that would choose fear as the feeling for the day.

For today there are two things that are out of the realm of our personal control. Naturally occurring weather (and those other things the earth does. Like shift and shake.) and the unnatural disasters caused by men – namely the monetary system and it’s accompanying laws and regulations.

So what are we left with? I can tell you the first thing we’ll need to control if we want all the control available to us – Our Thoughts. It doesn’t seem fair that the first thing we have to do is the hardest. But “seeming fair” is part of the thought process so fair might not even be real. We can’t say one way or another until we have control of our own minds.

No control, real control over our lives, can be had until we take control of ourselves. The tangible aspects of self are the physical and the mental. When physical things, like desires, control our lives – we’re out of control. As long as we don’t have this basic control we won’t be able to really take the reins of our existence. Even when we think we do.

An example of this would be the person who had the physical desire to gain power over others and saw this as control of his own life. Without thinking, or even thinking about thinking, he pursued this desire to it’s end. Now he is on top of the monetary heap. He has a castle and walls and no one comes at him with out a summons. He effects regulations through the legislature and in turn effects the lives and fortunes of millions of others. Does he have control of his life?

What happens if a grassroots organization is effective in tearing down the power structure of the monetary system? What if, due to the overall misery of the populace, a different system was established? Our man would have nothing. You see that everything he has is dependent on a man made system. He is totally reliant on money. It’s a form of subservience and has nothing in common with real personal autonomy and control. Dependency is never – never – control.

First we must come to grips with our thoughts. We must control our thinking so that desire doesn’t. Desire can take us through life without us ever examining ourselves and knowing ourselves. So we have to pay attention to our thoughts. Are they the thoughts we want? Are they coming from us? Where do thoughts come from? All this is part and parcel in control and in gaining some self control.

Want to just jump to the controlling everything around you part? Yeah, me too. Oh Well – Get back to me when you’ve mastered this first, controlling the thoughts, step and we’ll see how we feel then.