Take the first step and focus on what you can control

By Teboho Polanka

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Photo by davide ragusa on Unsplash
Photo by davide ragusa on Unsplash

So many people feel like life is predetermined and there’s nothing much we can do to change it. Yet some strongly feel like it is random. They think we really can’t have well thought out plans to give our life a sense of purpose and direction.

But what if I told you that even with the petrifying realities of our unpredictable economies, some adjustments on our part can pay-off?

Look at it this way: the farmer has a piece of land, seeds, seasons of the year and enough labor and equipment. When the farmer decides to start out his projects, he realizes that he has no control of the seasons of the year. He can’t make it rain so that his yields are increased. He can’t control the germination of his seeds. It is beyond his capacity.

Though he has control of labor and equipment, he can’t influence productivity in this case. So what if the farmer gets discouraged and chooses not to continue farming? Would you consider that a smart move, knowing the setbacks of his choice?

Most of us can readily see the stupidity of that choice. Why on earth would the farmer worry about the things he can’t change even by extended periods of worry? We might ask. Yet pretty much like this farmer, we often worry ourselves to the bone by things beyond our sphere of control.

I have seen some people – a different breed from the great majority I know – who came from not-so-well-thought-of families, with no financial success history come out to be the most influential and successful business tycoons. With all their background so dark and hopeless, somehow they’ve managed to break free. How did they do it?

I believe the only proper explanation is that, they didn’t care about failing and supposedly having bad reputations. They simply had ideas and fell for them, doing all they could to achieve them. Come what may they were up for it.

What am I saying? We live in times when most of our economies aren’t doing so well. Resources aren’t so plentiful. To worsen the picture, financial support even for our economic obsessions isn’t encouraging.

However, that’s very apparent. Here’s a proposition. Since we apparently can’t solve the financial stances of our economies even when we worry for years, why not focus on what we can control. Why not focus on developing those ideas, and taking tiny steps to commercializing them?

A full-blown and flourishing business does not just pop up, it begins with small investments. Who cares if it fails? Try again. Fail again. Double your failures to really succeed in this life of scarce resources. Ask the giants in the business world, success is way too costly and requires tenacious desire to achieve and the readiness to view failure as part of the journey.

Somebody had it right when they said, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

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Teboho Polanka
Teboho is a Social Worker, Writer and Inspirational Speaker. He is in pursuit of MSc. in Managerial Psychology. Graduates are able to apply psychological principles and methods to tackle challenges in the work environment and provide effective practical solutions. Acting as industrial-organizational psychologists.