What to Do When You Feel You are Losing Control

When things go your way...and when they don't

Originally published on October 17, 2016

I can’t be the only person to whom things happen…and suddenly your whole life seems to fall into place.

If you’ve read my articles before, you know my job last summer was the last job I wanted but after a month of waiting on retail applications, an opportunity presented itself and here I am today. What are the odds? They still needed people for the summer season, they asked my cousin to ask around, and eventually it came to me. Now I have a much fuller bank account, new friends, and a job waiting for me next summer should I choose to return.

Or how is it that after a summer of watching YouTube videos and coming up with ideas for videos, I happen to take a video production class and find out I like it (well, I knew I liked it, but liked it enough to want to get a good grade on it) and want to continue making videos? Or how soon after this realization did I find out that Odyssey now lets you upload video articles? It’s like the universe is telling me to try it out (and I probably will, once my weekday schedule gets a little more free).

But what do you do when things don’t go your way? I’ve found this has happened several times already this year, mostly due to my insane schedule. Club meetings never line up at a good time, mandatory meetings are set up when I definitely can’t go, and matching a professor’s schedule is next to impossible. When things are out of your control, you might feel like you are losing control over your life. For someone like me who likes knowing what is going on all the time, uncertainty and ambiguity and depending on others is not a strong suit of mine. I like exact schedules and firm plans and getting stuff done when it is time to get stuff done. But having too busy a schedule to fit in everything or having a group project where I don’t know the other members well enough to depend on them is not a comfortable situation to be in.

There’s a couple things you can do when you feel like this. First, I am sure there are things in the situation you can control more than you think you can. Find those things. Second, once that is done, you need to accept that you have done everything you can do about the situation. This is where it gets difficult, especially if you are like me. Give up your control and let things just happen. Sometimes you’ll be surprised by the results, and things may just fall into place, like I mentioned above. You could make lists of everything that is good in your life and maybe reflect, like I did, about the really good things that just happened to occur.

Life takes a great number of twists and turns. We all have our lucky streaks and our not-so-lucky streaks, and life is about getting through the rough patches and soaking in the success.