Who's In Control?

Now that politics are heating up and the election is taking center stage in the media, I'm noticing two different kinds of thinking in the people around me: people who are actively interested in what's happening, and people who throw up their hands and figure that it doesn't matter what they think because they have no control over things anyway.

These two approaches to politics also apply to other areas of life, and are sometimes applied unrealistically. Sometimes people feel that they should control things over which they have no power (and then berate themselves for not keeping enough of a handle on things), and other times they decide that they have no control over major events in their lives, and give up trying to make an impact. (There are other ways the control/helplessness issue plays out, but these are two modes of thinking that are both stress-inducing and far too prevalent.)

Psychologists call this perspective locus of control, and note that it affects many areas of one's life. Learn more about your locus of control, and see what you can do to change your locus of control (if need be), so you see things in a way that empowers you and keeps stress at bay.

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