London talk

Brother whitman

Bubi

President hinckley sam

checketts

plane miracle

How much of what happens in our lives do we control?

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In our lives we cannot control control everything that happens to us. But we can control certain things like our attitude, our emotions, our outlook on life and our decisions.  Learning to control these things is important because if we don't control what we can control then we will feel out of control. It may lead to not thinking right, always being angry with things we can't control, and maybe even madness!

In this paper I will discuss the following texts to support this claim: Invictus by William Earnest Henley, The Sports Gene by David Epstein, Luck is Not Chance by Emily Dickinson and If by Rudyard Kipling.

First of all we can control our decisions, but the outcome is often out of our control. We may have a feeling what the consequences will be but we can't control exactly what the outcome will be of our decisions. This is why I think we should make the right decision because usually the consequences will also be good. Rarely is there a bad decision that will have a good consequence.

Even it were to have a good consequence you would feel guilt about making a bad decision and therefore the consequence is still bad. If you made a good decision, it may leave you feeling awkward at the moment but later on you will feel good about making the right decision.

In Invictus the authors message goes through the character in the poem and he says that he is the master of his destiny no matter what is thrown at him to knock him off his path. The message the author is trying to show is that you can stay strong through hardships and not let anything faze you, not even the awful things that were going on with the charachter.

In this excerpt from Invictus [Put an excerpt here from the poem]  he shows control by not swaying under the hardships he is faced with. (Henley) He can control his attitude and his willingness to not be disconcerted, but, his situation is beyond his control as of, after he is in it.

The second big thing we can control is our reaction to events. It is vital to be able to control how we react to things that we cannot control for example, people writing untrue things about you in the media.  Need a short intro paragraph about something like, the second big thing we can control is our reaction to events. 

In Invictus he doesn't get to control what is happening to him but he does get to control how he reacts to what he is going through. He stands strong and won't let anything change him. As it says here in Invictus:

"And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid." (Henley)

While we get to control what we want to do or what we plan to do in our daily lives we don't control if conflicts come up at the last minute or if there is traffic on the way to somewhere, or your car breaks down.

One of the most important things that we can control at all times is our attitude and our emotions. As it says in the poem IF, "If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you." (Kipling)

The attitude one has plays a big part in what you control and how you deal with things.

It may be hard to control emotions but if you can control your emotions and attitude then what you can't control becomes much more bearable.

Some of what happens in our lives seems unfair. From everday activities to some really big things that change the way our lives turn. But sometimes something happens to us by luck. Sometimes we want luck on demand. Alas, that does not work. Luck over time is bound to happen, though. If you put in good work and a generous amount of action, over and over, and over again, sooner to later something that looks to others to be luck will become visible. Because luck over time appears because of vigorous contributions, it rarely happens when you actually need it.

While there still is luck in this world luck usually occurs after you have done something over and over until you can do it easily. As it says in Luck is not Chance "Luck is not chance It's Toil. Fortune's expensive smile Is earned." (Dickinson) So if something does happen that seems lucky it is most often the earnings of great toil and work.

In the excerpt the sports gene Thomas shows control by being calm under pressure and winning the gold medal even though he had just trained to be a high jumper for only a half of a year.
"Thomas decided to put his hops where his mouth was... Mattis had already set the bar at 6'6". Mattis waited for the big talker to fall to earth. And Thomas did, but the bar did not come with him. To Mattis' amazement, Thomas cleared it easily. So Mattis pushed the bar up to 6'8". Thomas cleared it. Seven feet. Without a semblance of graceful high-jump technique" (Epstein) 

Although he hadn't practiced he was gifted with a giant Achilles tendon that allowed for a giant hop. He had natural talent but he still had to train and work hard to get the gold medal. Some might say that someone who hadn't trained nearly as long as the others was lucky to get gold - but his attitude and willingness made the difference.

Thomas accepts his fate of being one of the best high jumpers after being challenged by a friend to
see how high he could jump. Being a soccer player you don't know what your fate holds but you can
control how you will work to get on track to be a great one. Like Thomas you can be born with natural talent, you can't control if you do though. But even if you are born with natural talent you still need to work to grow that talent.

Short paragraph about your own experience in sports.

In conclusion there are things that we can control and things that we cannot control but if we focus on the things that we can control and do not worry about the things that we cannot control life will be much more fulfilling. Even if you are going through trials and you can't control what's going to happen to you, you can have a good attitude and make the most of it by controlling the controllables.