The Illusion Of Control

We humans like to manage and hoard and control things.  We learn the word "mine" at a very young age.  We lock down our stuff.  We lug our belongings through the years.  We even drag our friends and family through time.  We do all of this because we want a sense of control on our lives, a sense of security.  If we take a step or two back and look at the bigger picture, we may see how small and futile our ability to control actually is.

Starting with the obvious, the economy, its easy to see that money does indeed make itself wings as the old adage goes.  The recession of 2009 made people loose a lot of money and assets.  The housing market collapsed after a period of record high gas prices.  Housing foreclosures began and continued throughout 2010.  People lost home ownership, jobs, credit.  Banks lots billions in bad investments.  Many people filed for bankruptcy.  Nobody could control it.  The only power they might have had is to try to get out of its way by selling off assets early.  The only recourse for people was to blame the government, because how else can you blame society?

Natural disasters is another power that cannot be controlled.  Who can stop an earthquake?  Who can quench a tornado?  How can you redirect a hurricane?  How can you calm a tsunami? Mega natural disasters like hurricane Katrina or the tsunami of 2004 killed thousands.  Five days before Katrina hit, I watched the Weather Channel and knew those people needed to evacuate.  Anybody who watched that program realized that people needed to evacuate.  Nobody listened, not the governments and not the people.  Why didn't they listened?  Even in face of natural disasters, people will try to stay where they are.  It takes courage to get up and go and leave all of your life your friends, your belongings, and your community behind.  Natural disasters change lives.  People are more often than not resistant to change.  They do not want to loose control.  In the end they have no choice, they will loose control.  They loose control over all their belongings and way of life.  It gets ripped from them by a force they barely can understand.  For them, control was an illusion.

There is an invisible force in everyday life that affects us. Its in every business, organization, plan and endeavor we work in.  Its made up of the conditions in which we work and can come back to bite us.  I call it the Nature Of The Beast.  The best illustration I can think of happened back in the 1990's. Companies were downsizing to cut costs.  Lots of companies.  And the companies decided to give someone the job of analyzing and rationalizing whom they were to cut.  Toward the end of the job these workers of job loss had to face the Nature Of The Beast.  The honest ones decided they had no choice but to recommend that they be cut as well, since their job was done and no more monetary benefit was going to come out of them remaining employed for the company.  Beware of the Nature Of The Beast.  Know its circumstances and how it works else you may be its next victim.  If you think you have control over your career, think again.  The Nature Of The Beast quells all illusion of control over your career.


The Economic Recession, Natural Disasters and Nature Of The Beast are only a small sample of the forces out there we cannot control.  So I say, loosen your grip on career, family, friends, belongings.  Give a little, and be more flexible.  You just might find a way to keep them for the long haul.  Sting sang a song, "If you love someone, set them free."  We should heed such advice, or the illusion of control might just vanish away like fog or smoke.