What time you get out of bed.
Whether or not (eww…) you brush your teeth in the morning.
Which bit of breakfast you put in your mouth first and last.
Remembering to take your things to school.
How you greet your teacher, your classmates, the custodian, hall monitor.
How much time you spend in the bathroom.
What you think about during math class.
How you treat those around you (and yourself) at lunch.
How much time you spend on your phone.
What you attend to whilst on your phone.
How you leave your classroom, classmates, teacher, custodian for the day.
How you greet those at home when you see them after school.
Whether or not you do your homework. AND, the quality of the effort as well.
What input – news, music, games, etc. – you attend to when not doing homework or chores.
How you react to that inpu.
Whether or not (ew…) you brush your teeth before bed.
What you think about whilst falling asleep.
Campers, this is a just a small list off the top of my head that you completely control each and every school day. Doesn’t matter if you are online or in-person. Doesn’t matter what time school starts or what you have after it.
You have the opportunity to control all of the things listed above along with a whole lot more.
Losing Focus
A lot of adults (and kids) are focused right now on things that are way out of their control. Because of this, our ability to exert control on that which we can degrades.
It’s ok to be sad or scared or anxious or nervous some of the time. These feelings are good reminders to make your scope of focus a bit smaller and think about what you can do to make the world around you a better, more interesting place.
The results of your efforts don’t matter (unless they are making the situation worse. If that is the case, stop and do something else.) Most of the time, you won’t know if your daily actions are meaningful. In fact, change is so slow that you don’t even notice it… in both directions.
Like a snowball rolling down the mountain, little things add up quickly.
The more emphasis or focus you put on treating yourself, your responsibilities and those around you with kindness, honesty, and grace, the more those around you will see you as a kind, honest and graceful person. The more careless with your time, your words or the small details under your control, the less likely those around you will trust you enough to give more.
Control what you can control, Weequahic. That’s one of the keys to a productive, happy life. Have a great week!
PS…
I had a totally different post ready to go today. However, just like four years ago, I’ve spent a good portion of my day on the phone with friends upset about an election. Like four years ago, some are afraid and others happy.
Just as four years ago, I’m happy to report, based on evidence from the past 4 billion years, the sun will come up tomorrow and the earth will continue its dance through the heavens. Today will be a lot like yesterday and tomorrow a lot like today. I say this not to diminish feelings of hurt or elation. It’s stated simply as a reminder of perspective.
The vast majority of change is very slow to happen and mostly springs from our daily, personal interaction with the world and people around us. This is also the source of most of our joy.
The world is too big to change much less control. Our best way forward, as in any situation, is to control what we can control and treat the world and those around us with kindness, honesty and grace. Get after that, Weequahic, and things will work out well.
