“Be not angry with outward events, for they care nothing for it.” -Euripedes

Natural to the human experience inside a big, indiscriminate world is the sense of feeling out of control—of feeling that the reality of present circumstances is at direct odds with our desires. Our atomic existence on the grand scale makes us highly susceptible to such a feeling. Difficult as it can be to accept at times, life often dictates us—more specifically, the bounds within which we can operate (though not the degree to which we can operate within them), and is wholly uninterested in our plans or preferences. Living well in a brutally objective world requires acutely developed, routinely-evaluated clarity in two things: that which lies within our control, and that which lies outside of it. Once identified, the work then becomes to direct our energy accordingly.

For the person who’s been exposed to any amount of self-development material, the concept of focusing on what’s within one’s control is not a novel one. In fact, overexposure to a superficial version of the concept may desensitize us to it entirely, as it's not merely a matter of focusing on what you can control, but of actively choosing to not emotionally attach yourself to anything you can’t.

A high-functioning understanding of control looks as follows: emotionally aligning yourself only to that which directly relates to your own actions.