Identify what you have control over in your life. This will help you be in tune with yourself when life gets unpredictable. It is always good to start small with these things. A big idea initially can potentially feel like a daunting task. Take a look at yourself. Find some areas that you know you can directly influence to your specifications. By doing so, you are another step closer to reclaiming your peace of mind. You are also reclaiming your power as a human being. While this short list is a simple list, that is the point of it. It is about starting small and building up. Think about some easy things you can do to start with before all the big planning in life begins. Below is a list of ideas you can do and my reasons for why. If we do not share the exact same reasons that is okay, it’s the general concept that matters. Whichever definition speaks to you the most, either yours or mine, is the one you should go with.

REMOVING EXPECTATIONS:

• You are one of so many billions of people on planet Earth. We are literally all just human beings trying to exist on a floating rock in space. At the core of all of this, none of it makes any sense. It also will not matter at some point if you consider your mortality. What matters is what you pass on about yourself. With all of that considered, why burden yourself with the perception of someone else’s thoughts? Thoughts they are not having! Everything I think of and can do, stems from me and my motivations. If I expect something I experience to be exactly as someone else experienced it, I will always be disappointed. I fail to revel in the unique experiences it provides me. Expectations have a way of trying to answer a question before you even have to. They are like predicting a scene in a movie just before it happens. This ruins the spontaneity of the moment. It spoils the genuine reaction that should have been had. It also tries to fit your thoughts into a box. Keep your options open, let the moment be exactly just that, a moment. If I expect the activity to be exactly something else, it will always fail. Consistency in results over time can create something of an expectation because at some point, patterns do matter. As far as the human experience goes, the first order of business is to remove the expectations entirely. Just let the experiences of the moment answer those questions. Whether good, bad or indifferent does not matter. What matters now is that I know about it and have my own unique experiences and interpretations. Lose the expectations, let things be what they are until they are not.
• Some ideas to consider to assist in removing exceptions:

1. Self reflection: The thought process you have starts with you and ends with you. Your thoughts are fluid and subject to all kinds of changes. These thoughts are uniquely yours and that should be embraced as a good thing. It also means that you have much more influence than you could be giving yourself credit for. 
2. Take back control of your approach: If not knowing a possible outcome makes you uncomfortable, take some time to unpack those feelings and address why. It is also important to recognize too that even with life’s unpredictability, you still hold plenty of control of yourself. Lean into this idea, even if some aspects of what you can control feel unimportant or too simple. Here I’ll list some of the actions I take to reclaim control:

• Getting a good nights sleep
• Showering
• Cleaning up a living space
• Going on a walk
• Taking 5 to 10 minutes to meditate and calm the mind
• Journal by hand or recording audio messages of my thoughts
• Listening to some thought provoking music like jazz or classical (my personal preference). 

3. Speak it into existence: You control the narrative. Repeat mantras to yourself. Manifest everything you want with your thoughts and your words and actively make moves throughout the day to put you closer to that which you desire. If you breathe life into and give it some time and patience, what once seemed like a dream could be far more possible.

COMPLETING TASKS

• It sounds easy to say and truthfully it is. Something about showing up for yourself, fulfilling your own promises, and accomplishing your goals for self is incredibly gratifying. Going to the gym is a good example. You have to have a plan of what to do during a workout and a means to get there. You should not think of a workout like a chore, but instead it is an opportunity. A chance to teach your body something and apply those skills. Nothing is quite as glorious as walking away from a solid workout, knowing you crushed it. Endorphins are flowing and your swagger is peaking, at least for myself I feel this way. Why does it feel like a boost in my confidence? It’s a boost because I made an agreement to myself to do something from start to finish. By getting the full experience and completing the task, I have fulfilled my duty to myself to show up. I have earned the trust of myself to know that I can finish what I started. It is the same way with finishing a book or finishing a draft for my blog. Once I do that, the wash over of relief is very real and the communication to my brain is encouraging. I set a goal and I accomplished it. If I can do this enough times, I will be more trusting of me to get the job done. I will be encouraged to be the person I am suppose to be to be. That trust is deeply ingrained in my day to day operations and sets me up for success. Get out of rhythm? Things happens. Just as long as you collect yourself and go back to doing good work, you will be just fine. That sense of trust feels undeniable in improving my image of self. I can show up for me. 
• Miniature goals are a good place to start: Any time you have a chance to get something small, maybe even insignificant done, create a practice of setting aside some time to devote to it. There are always a million things to do, so if one at a time feels too slow, that is okay. I mean the smallest things matter too. Something as simple as just getting out of bed the same way, taking small notes, setting aside 5 minutes to do nothing but be present with yourself. Everything can matter to you and when you do enough of these types of activities, routines form. 

CHANGE UP YOUR INTERPRETATION OF FAILURE

• Fail a lot, then fail some more. Failure is necessary and should not be seen as the stopping point. The big catch about failure is learning how to course correct from it with each one. You can fail a million times as long as you are trying a million different ways to do something. Life is about problem solving, it is about seeing what happens when you do one thing and something else happens. How else would I learn if I am not terrible at it initially? The point is that it is not about being terrible, it is about finding a way to improve. Anything new will not be absorbed as easily as something that has been memorized in your muscles and your brain. You have to train it. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results right? The key to failure is to fail differently each time but return with something different each time. Even in failure, there is some magic in every idea. If I can capture that, I am that much closer to success the next time. Success off the bat is also great and is desirable for sure. Trying new methods challenges you. With those challenges you take on, even in failure, they make you better.
• It is all about creating drafts: In every effort that does not ultimately work, there is pieces that did. It is about being able toidentify what remains as a positive element in each attempt at something you do. Whether it be writing, playing sports, and even your job. I constantly trial and error my daily routine to be able to find the best ways to be efficient. They don’y all work and that is fine but I am closer to landing on it then I was before.
• Be open to advice: Advice isn’t law but perspectives aside from your own can help you sharpen up some ideas for yourself that you have. Asking people what made something work for them the way they did is what I like to do. I am interested in the thought process and what steps were taken to ultimately get to the desired outcome. Adding these tidbits of information to your blueprint formation and soon enough, positive result is on the way. Take everything with a grain of salt. Remember that it is uniquely yours still and what works for you is just fine, even if it doesn’t work the same way for someone else.