Thoughts. Balance. Meaning.

There isn't much I can do to change or control certain things or people and their actions around me. I'd just wonder why things can't be a little different sometimes, circumstances that could be a lot more favourable, or perhaps someone didn't act a certain way. Admittedly, I have even tried to change them sometimes—situations or behaviours of other people—and mostly failed.

What, then, can I do in undesirable situations? The things I can't control versus those I can control—what should my lines of action be? In search of the best move, what piece do I play on the chess board of life? Oftentimes, I seek precision, and a lot of times, I don't attain it. What next, then?

The last year has been transformative for me in many dimensions that I could have imagined and that I can remember at the moment. As much as I may, in the moment of reflection, feel like the year may not have turned out to be what I could have wanted, I always go through changes, like everything alive. Being real with myself, though, I usually don't have everything figured out, but here I am regardless, changing.

The mind and body are two separate entities, as Evy Poumpouras explained in a podcast, yet they are married to one another and affect themselves in direct and indirect ways. And so the thoughts we have can affect the way we feel, and vice versa. So, "if you want to do something about your body, you can effect change in your mind; and if you want to do something about your mind, what you do to your body does a lot," as Jay Shetty often says.

In a conversation with someone, I explained how going to workout at the gym is really way beyond building muscle mass and adding gains; it was more of a mind thing for me, so my sights were on something different. Learning how much better I sleep by working out regularly, which ultimately improves my thought processes, I adopted it as a lifestyle to help me rest better.

As A Man Thinketh by James Allen. A book I found an excellent summary of—as a blink—on Blinkist. It's central point is that "thought is the key to our lives. Our characteristics, our ability to achieve, the circumstances we face, and even our physical health are all shaped by the thoughts we have." And there, I learned more about positive thinking.

The world around us doesn't just shape us—we shape it, too. Our environment, as we know, shapes us. The places we find ourselves can influence us, our thoughts, and our actions. What we don't often think of is that our thoughts somehow affect our environments and sometimes the situations in which we find ourselves.

Attitude and action are interconnected, and so what we think affects how we act and the actions we take, influencing the outcomes of the circumstances in which we find ourselves. So it makes sense that pessimistic people can become underachievers and that positive thinkers tend to become successful people.

I was an hour late to a meeting with my group. I was already a tad bit upset by something else, and then the journey ended in a small altercation between myself and the bike man that took me to my destination. I was clearly right, but the bike man wouldn't concede and wanted more than I was supposed to pay. I got even more agitated by that, and I wasn't going to let him have his way; that was wrong.

Eventually, it was resolved soon enough, but my thoughts were already muddled up, and I was raging inside as I walked to the meeting. I had to maintain composure and a smile because I couldn't afford to look like an angry bird.

Then, as I sat, I was asked to be the spokesman for the group. I had done it before and did alright then, but it was impromptu. I wasn't in the right frame of mind in that moment, but I just had to throw all that out the window and start to remind myself why it was important to do the job right.

The camaraderie between my colleagues before the meeting started was giving off good vibes, so I focused on that and then did my thing. In the end, I made an excellent delivery. Surely, I would have flunked it for everyone if I had held on to the negative feelings instead.

I cannot control what I can't change. I can do something about what I can control, however—my thoughts. And so that's what I should rather focus on. Good and bad events will always happen. People will always be people. It is my response that I have control over, like the game of chess.