“Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.” – Jim Rohn

As the year comes to a close, have you taken stock of what you have achieved and was it according to what you have planned for? Like most people, I am sure that you have achieved some parts of your life based on your own terms and other parts have been decided by others.

You can control most of your life and it is inevitable that some things are out of your control. Illness, for example is definitely not welcome and try as we might to avoid catching bugs from people, eat right, work out and do all the right things we sometimes still succumb to illnesses now and then.

The problem is getting ill always occurs when you can’t “afford to get sick” but in truth don’t most lousy surprises occur at inconvenient times? Yes, lousy surprises are always annoying and always imposing on us when we need it least.

The question is, how many of these unwanted surprises could you have planned better for and what do you do when things out of your control hit you?

Most start with the blaming game, we blame God, others and ourselves. We get angry over the injustice of this world, we deny all responsibilities and we deny having any control over our present and our future.

Truth is, there are many things in life we have control over. Things like where our career goes, whether we become entrepreneurs, whether we have different living conditions and how we nurture our relationships. These are all within our power to change, to improve and to grow.

Where you end up is entirely up to you. You not only have control over the direction, you also have ultimate power over how you feel and how you mange any kind of lousy surprises.

No matter how your year has been, I urge you to think about what you have achieved thus far, if you are happy, keep going, and if you are not, it is never too late to make changes.

Here’s a Happy New Year to you and hope you fulfill your goals and dreams for the year to come!